To Be, Or Not To Be That Is The Question
by Twinkle Toes3
Summary: But what if you don't have a choice? ' "Yer goin' ter be a knight." Her jaw dropped. '
1. Chapter

Ok, start over!!! I didn't like the way the story was going, and people weren't reviewing, so I am starting a different story. Here it goes!!! Hope you like it, and please, review!!!  
  
Disclaimer!!!!! *Eerie music comes on and an uncanny voice starts speaking in rhythm to the music* 'All these characters that you recognize belong to the great, wonderful, magnificent, glorious Tamora Pierce!!!!! All the rest belong to the not - so - great, not - exactly wonderful, non - to glorious -'  
  
The voice is cut off by a very angry author, me. "Dumb things, never trust anything that you can't completely control it yourself!"  
  
  
  
  
  
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Robin Finn crept up to the castle. The clammy night air clung to her and made her uncomfortable. She knew well enough that it was very foolhardy to go there, after all, wasn't she the most-wanted person in the whole of Tortall? Of course, the king didn't know that right now the King of Thieves happened to be a girl, much less, a girl of just ten years of age, or around there, thereabouts, for she never really knew her age - no thief did.  
  
Robin cursed Stephan under her breath. Why had he wanted her to come all the way up to the castle? As if she wasn't busy enough as it was!  
  
Robin looked, indeed, a lot like the Lioness, although neither of them knew that. (I doubt they even knew of each other) Robin was short for her age, with a stocky, strong build, had copper hair, a temper as fiery as her hair, and violet eyes. Nobody ever mentioned her eyes in front of her and went away without at least one black eye. It was bad enough being a redhead, but with violet eyes, it made it really hard to be a thief. There was no way Robin could melt casually into crowds without giving it much thought.  
  
Finally she reached a secret tunnel, built by the first King of Thieves to give thieves an easy way in and out of the castle. Robin flung open the trap door, cursing as it bounced off her leg and clanged back down.  
  
"Who's there?" a voice called through the night air. Robin jumped up a tree and hid there in the branches, watching.  
  
A man came round. He looked about, saw nothing, and went back to his post, muttering about ghosts. Grinning evilly, Robin climbed down from her tree, quickly and quietly opened the trap door, and jumped to the ground below, letting the door swing silently closed behind her. As she landed cat- like, Robin looked around. The tunnel was still in tact and would be safe to use. She scuttled up the narrow passage way as soundlessly as she could.  
  
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	2. Chapter Two

Disclaimer!!!!! *Eerie music comes on and an uncanny voice starts speaking in rhythm to the music* 'All these characters that you recognize belong to the great, wonderful, magnificent, glorious Tamora Pierce!!!!! All the rest belong to the not - so - great, not - exactly wonderful, non - to glorious Mar-'  
  
The voice is cut off by a very angry author, me. "Dumb things, never trust anything that you can't completely control it yourself!" *Turns and walks off stage, blushing deep red* "How embarrassing. I still haven't changed that disclaimer. Anyone got a disclaimer up for grabs? I need a new disclaimer!!!" *starts sobbing* 'It even started to say my name this time!!!" (sorry peeps, but I LOVE writing disclaimers, they're soooo fun!)  
  
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Robin was beginning to feel as if she had lived in the tunnel all her life, and crawled around in the dirt for the fun of it, when she reached a ladder. "Thank Mithros!" she muttered as she began to climb up the ladder. "I was beginning to think I was a mole, and had only dreamed of the human world."  
  
Finally, she reached the top of the ladder, only to reveal another hundred yards of tunnel. Grunting, Robin started crawling again. 'If they catch me, they'll probably think they caught some new kind of abnormal animal,' the groaning thought raced through her head, and Robin was trying to decide if it was a good thought, or a bad one, when she bumped her head on hard wood. Cursing enough to make even a street guard turn purple, Robin backed up, and then looked up. The thing she had bashed her head into was another trap door. She stopped cursing herself blue in the face, and grinned wickedly. She put her ear to the door. No sound. Noiseless as a mouse, Robin pushed up the trap door.  
  
Robin pulled herself out of the clandestine tunnel, closed the trap door, and hurried along the foyer that she found herself in.  
  
She was getting into the grove. Round a corner, run along a hallway, round another corner, run along an additional hallway. Robin began to relax and let her thoughts wonder. It was hard being the youngest King of Thieves ever. Robin knew that at any time, she could step down from the throne, but why? Used-to-be Kings of Thieves were never treated very well. Except for the last one, George Cooper. But then again, he had married Alanna, and didn't have to live for the rest of his life on the streets. Robin would very likely be murdered the moment she stepped down from the throne.  
  
Robin rounded another corner, and tripped over something lying on the floor. As she went sprawling, Robin thought grimly 'Well, I won't be killed when I step down from the throne, I'll be kept in the palace dungeons till I rot.' Then, twisting her breeches back into place, she whirled around to see what she had tripped over.  
  
It was a man, rather tall, stretched out on the floor. He had black hair, and beautiful sapphire blue eyes, and, it was hard to tell in this light, but it looked like a crown was slipping off the left side of his head. The man seemed to have been playing with a puppy. And now he was staring at Robin as if he was seeing a ghost.  
  
Robin knew who this man was. To most people he was King Jonathan, to Robin's people, he was 'that man on the hill'. Whatever you called him, Robin supposed it wasn't a good thing to trip over him in the dead of night. But why was he looking at her like that?  
  
"Alanna?" the king gasped.  
  
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Naughty, naughty me: I gave you guys another chapter. Too bad. But, be guaranteed, this won't happen again!!! You have to give me at least 2 reviews!!! Does anyone think this sounds interesting, or should I just delete it? You know what I just found out? Robin's name, if you write it like this - Robin' - it's kind of like the word robbing. Coincidence? Marian * walks off stage and begins to holler at her disclaimer* 


	3. Chapter Three

All right!!!!! Review, reviews, reviews, and more reviews!!! Biiiiiggg thanx from me to all of you!!!!!  
  
nith- Jon wasn't in the dungeons. Robin thought that whatever tripped her would get her caught, and then she'd be thrown in the dungeons.  
  
Rose- I'm planning on updating. And thanx!  
  
Just a Girl- No, Alanna's not dead, I'll explain more in this chapter, and as to your next question, that will be answered in another chapter.  
  
Small One- Sorry I didn't write your whole name. Ok, no more outrageous disclaimer. I'm 12, 13 on Aug. 14. Thanx for the wonderful complements!  
  
Wow, you guys! No one's ever said that I write well. (but I'm home schooled, so what do you expect?) Except my mom. But moms'll say anything.  
  
Disclaimer: Gagd av ikdwe xkclsxialw cld hsgd, doxdzi val wahd av ikdh. Ikde'ld Ichalc Zsdlxd'w. Zrdcwd bag'i wpd hd, ydwsbdw, S bag'i kcnd cge hagde.  
  
That was in my native language, LionDandish. In English that is - None of these characters are mine, except for some of them. They're Tamora Pierce's. Please don't sue me, besides, I don't have any money.  
  
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"Alanna?" the king gasped. This was Robin's chance to run, her chance to get away. But she couldn't, she seemed locked in place. It was as if her brain wasn't connected to her feet. Or to the rest of her body for that mater.  
  
"Jon? Who are you talking to? And why are you out there?" a female voice drifted out from a room to the left.  
  
The voice brought both the king and Robin back to their senses. Robin turned and sprinted like a ghost down the corridor and the king quickly jumped to his feet like a scared deer.  
  
"Nothing. No one. Thayet." Jon couldn't talk in complete sentences from shock of what he had seen.  
  
Thayet came out of her room. "What's the matter, Jon? You look like you've seen a ghost!" she exclaimed.  
  
"I thought I just did. Alanna's page-ghost. I shouldn't have turned away that other girl who wanted to be a knight."  
  
"Nonsense. Alanna is at Pirate's Swoop. I doubt that she's even heard that you sent that other girl on. Now come back to bed- it's cold out here." Thayet commanded. Jon didn't move.  
  
"Listen, Jon. You were just having a bad dream! Now stop goggling like a little puppy!" Thayet was loosing patience with her husband.  
  
Jon turned and stalked back into his room, Thayet behind him. "It was just a bad dream, dear." She told him soothingly as she bent to pick up the puppy Jon had been playing with. Jon grunted.  
  
Down the hallway, Robin heaved a muffled sigh of relief. She hadn't been caught, not that time at least. She glanced out a nearby window. Instead of the silvery moon-light she expected to see streaming through the window, the glow was a creamy golden-peach. Her breath caught in her throat. It was morning.  
  
"'Ello!" a falsely cheerful voice behind Robin startled her. Whipping around, fists raised, Robin saw who it was.  
  
"Stephan!" she shouted at him, not bothering to keep her voice down. "What do you think you were doing, asking me to come all the way up here? You very nearly got me caught!"  
  
Stephan grabbed her wrist and dragged her into an empty room. Robin yanked free, but Stephan blocked the door. "Calm down, lass, calm down. Nobody's goin' ter get ye if ye stay in here an' hear me out!" Stephan hissed at her "Quietly." He added as Robin opened her mouth to shout a stream of curses at him.  
  
Robin snapped her jaw closed and thumped down on the floor. "All right. Shoot." She waited, Stephan seamed to be trying to find the right words to tell her whatever he was going to say. "What'd ya wanna tell me?" she demanded.  
  
"Yer gunna be a knight." Stephan said. Robin's jaw dropped.  
  
  
  
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Robin's gonna get ca-ught, Robin's gunna get ca-ught! Actully, I don't think she's going to, not now, anyway. Sorry. Okey-dokey artichokey. Review, and maybe you'll get more!!! 


	4. Chapter Four

Disclaimer: None of this is mine, except for Robin. And the plot. I think. I haven't read everybody's stuff, so I don't know if the plot is original or not. But I think it is. The rest of it is Tammy's.  
  
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"Yer gunna be a knight." Stephan said. Robin's jaw dropped. It was very rare that she was speechless, and now was one of those rare occasions. Finally she cleared her throat.  
  
"Sorry, I think I'm goin' deaf. I thought that you just said that I was goin' to be a knight." She said, disbelieving.  
  
Stephan grinned, a very uncharacteristic thing for him to do. "I knew ye'd be surprised. I knew it!" he stood up. "It's off to the duke with ye now, missy. I've already sent him a "letter", and he sent one back, agreein' to let ye become a page. O'corse, he don't know what or who ye are, but that'll come out all in good time." He grabbed Robin by the wrist and pulled her out the door, her spluttering all the way.  
  
"I can't, Stephan. You know that. I have my duties. I - I'm not a noble, I can't be a page, all knights are nobles. I'd never pass as a noble, I'm the lowliest born you could get. Stephan! Are you listening?"  
  
Stephan pulled her into a corner, and, gripping her by the shoulders, put his face right up to hers. "Listen. Yer ter be a knight. I can't tell you why right now, yer mother said I couldn't -"  
  
"How dare you bring up my mother! She's long dead, and I don't care what she wanted me to do, she left me on the streets!" Robin screamed, on the brink of tears. "My mother don't care about-"  
  
Stephan put his hand over her mouth, silencing her, and held it there. "Yer mother's not dead. Now stop blubbering like a baby, highness, yer gunna be a knight. From now on, yer name can stay Robin, even though that's not yer real name, but now yer from Chassie, not Corus."  
  
"I's never heard of Chassie." Robin retorted sulkily.  
  
"Os corse ye hasn't. I made it up. Now shut up, would ye? Yer Robin of Chassie, no arguin'. Yer mother's payin' for ye ter become a knight. She understands that it'll be hard for ye, bein' both the king, and tryin' ter be a page, but she'll help ye along." He led her out into the corridor. "Now ter the Duke. He wanted ter see ye."  
  
Robin allowed herself to be steered along by Stephan. This was all to much for her. Why couldn't she just be the King of Thieves? Even though that had happened on accident, Robin still liked the job, but she hadn't counted on having to become a page. And what was Stephan chattering on about her mother? None of it made sense.  
  
Robin was so caught up in her thoughts, that she was surprised to be outside a door that Stephan had just knocked on.  
  
"Come in," a voice said from inside. Stephan and Robin entered. Sitting at a desk was a tall, thin man, with dreary brown hair that drooped into his muddy brown eyes. Though plain, this man had an aura of commanding about him.  
  
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My loooonest chappie ever!!!! Yeah!!!!!! More Soon, hopefully. You know, if I spelled Chassie like this - chassis - which is still pronounced chassie, it would mean the metal frame on a car? I found that out last night, when I meant to say "Cash your check", and I said "Check you chassie." Dad was really pleased, because he's a mechanic. He thought that I finally knew something about cars. 


	5. Chapter Five

Disclaimer: None of this is mine, except for Robin and the plot. The rest of it is Tammy's.  
  
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"Come in," a voice said from inside. Stephan and Robin entered. Sitting at a desk was a tall, thin man, with dreary brown hair that drooped into his muddy brown eyes. Though plain, this man had an aura of commanding about him.  
  
"Robin of Chassie?" It was more of a statement then a command. "I don't remember your father coming here?" That was a question, and one that Robin wasn't sure of the answer.  
  
"No, sir." She said, as that was the only thing that this man would except.  
  
"Well, you will work hard, Robin."  
  
"Yes, sir."  
  
"Sit down, both of you." Robin and Stephan sat down.  
  
"You're here, Robin of Chassie, to learn what it is to be a knight and a noble of Tortall. It is not easy. You must learn to defend the weak, to obey your overlord, to champion the cause of right. Someday you will even be able to tell what right is." Robin wasn't sure if this man was joking, or not, and decided not to ask.  
  
"Until you are fourteen, you will be a page. You will wait on the table at the evening meal. You will run errands for any lord or lady that asks. Half of the day will be spent learning the fighting arts. The other half you will spend with books, in the hope that we can teach you how to think.  
  
"If your masters think you are ready, you will be made a squire when you are fourteen. Perhaps a knight will choose you as his body squire. If so, you'll tend your master's belongings, run his errands, and protect his interests. Your other lessons will continue, they'll be harder, of course.  
  
"When you're eighteen, you'll undergo the Ordeal of Knighthood. If you survive, you will be a knight of Tortall. Not everyone survives." The man went on and on and on, and, after a while, Robin stopped paying attention, and pretended to be listening.  
  
After he had stopped rambling on, a man came to take her to her rooms. As she followed the man, Timon, and Stephan followed her, Robin was beginning to feel panicked. She couldn't be a page, much less a knight!  
  
"This'll be where ye get yer uniform, lad." Timon said, pointing to a door, and Robin entered. A small woman, only a little bit taller then Robin herself, came up to Robin.  
  
"Well, you're a small lad, but I'm sure that we can get something fer ye." She said, walking around Robin. "Michael, go get the smallest pair o' clothes we have." A man scampered into a back room while the lady continued talking.  
  
"Now, mind me, boy, ye rip 'em, ye mind 'em. Ye look lake a lad who'd do a lot o' rippin' and not al lot o' growin'." Robin could feel her face burning. True, she was more prone to ripping her clothes then growing out of them, but did this lady have to bring that up? "Now, ifn ye do grow outa yer clothes, which I doubt ye will, come ter me. We'll get ye some new uns." The man returned with a pile of clothes, and held them up to Robin. They were obviously going to be way too big.  
  
"Perfect." He said, and dashed back into the back room.  
  
"Ah, a bit shy, Michael. But ye'll get used ter him, an' he'll get used ter ye." She dumped the clothes into Robin's arms and shooed her out the door.  
  
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"I'm gunna kill you, Stephan," Robin said later, while she was changing and talking to Stephan, who was in the other room.  
  
"It's what yer mother wanted ye ter do. I can't help it if she chose me ter tell ye." He said in his usual grim manor.  
  
"If my mother cared that much about me, wouldn't she have taken care of me ter begin wif?" Robin demanded, stepping out from behind the screen.  
  
"Yer mother was cursed. Her first born baby was to be taken away from her two months after she gave birth to it, and when the child reached a certain age, she could see ye again." Stephan explained.  
  
"When was that certain age?" Robin asked, pulling on her boots.  
  
"She didn't say. I believe that she herself was unsure about it herself."  
  
"Who was my mother?" It felt odd, asking that. Robin had always hated her mother for abandoning her, but now, Robin wasn't sure.  
  
Stephan bit his lip. "I can't tell ye. I'm not sure why, but I can't." He looked into Robin's pleading eyes. "Don't think on it, lass. Ye won't have any time to think on it when ye start yer training, anyway. Just go about like ye did before this- hating yer mother."  
  
"I can't. Not now, at least. Now I know that she would have kept me, if she could have. I can't hate her now. Can ye tell me who my father is?"  
  
"No, lass, I can't. And for the same reason. She forbid me to." Robin bit her lip and nodded. "But they're still alive. One day you'll live with them. I know you'll like them." Robin nodded again.  
  
A bell rang, and Robin jumped five feet in the air; Stephan didn't move an inch. "That's the bell callin' ye fer dinner. Best go out there an' get yerself a sponsor. And straighten yer tunic first."  
  
Robin adjusted her tunic and opened the door. Doors all down the hall were opening, and boys coming out, all dressed in the same wear. Soon they saw her, and ran to tell others that there was a new boy in the castle.  
  
Then a man came down the corridor, with a bunch of lads following him. "State your name and fief, and a sponsor will choose you." He said loudly and clearly. He pointed at a tall boy with brown hair and brown eyes.  
  
The boy mumbled something. "What? Speak up, lad. We can't hear you."  
  
"William of Treefair."  
  
"Who will sponsor Treefair?" The man demanded. A tall boy with brown hair and eyes stepped forward.  
  
"Sir? Will and I are cousins. May I sponsor him?" He got a curt nod in reply.  
  
And so it went down the hall until they were at Robin, who was last in line. "Robin of Chassie." She said.  
  
"Who will sponsor Chassie?"  
  
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Who will sponsor Robin? Review, give me suggestions! 


	6. Not A Chapter

Ok, so this is not a chapter. I just want to say that I will be gone Saturday and Sunday. I'm going to leave at five o'clock in the morning and come home at nine o'clock at night. So I'm, not going to be up to getting on the computer.  
  
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WANTED: PEOPLE WHO CAN WRITE REVIEWS. I DON'T CARE IF YOU YELL AT ME, OR THROW FLAMES AT ME, I JUST WANT REVIEWS!!!!!!!!!  
  
/*~*\  
  
In my last chapter, I asked people to tell me who they thought should sponsor Robin, and I want at least three reviews on that before I continue, because I'm having a writer's block, and I desperately need suggestions, and I need a wide variety. If people give me a good sponsor, I'll give them credit in my next chapter, and maybe every time in disclaimer. No promises, because I tend to be forgetful, but I will try.  
  
/*~*\  
  
And to some of my last reviewers, you are so brilliant!!! But, please, keep your voices down, so that the not-so-smart people can have a surprise. That was directed at no one in particular, in case anyone was wondering.  
  
/*~*\  
  
So, any ideas? Do you need a ticket? *Hands out tickets to each and every one of her reviewers* Now you don't. *Grin* So, come one, come all, give your reviews!!! Best reviewer will (probably) find their name in the DISCLAIMER for the rest of this story. That, I suppose is a big honor.  
  
/*~*\  
  
Just listen to me. I'm going to make this as long as one of my regular stories! And I just meant to say that I would be gone, so I wouldn't be posting for two days, and then I start going on about reviews. But, when you are in a writer's block, you desperately need help, or at least I do. Funny, for being in a writer's block, I can write a lot about nothing, can't I?  
  
/*~*\  
  
Sincerely Yours Your Truly Forever Your Friend At FanFiction.net Marian  
  
Even my goodbye is pretty looooooonge. What does /*~*\ look like to you? My friend said it's just a design, my better friend and I think it is a girl(** - eyes, ~ - nose, / \ -hair), and my bro says it is a battlefield(don't even ask how he sees it. It's really disgusting). What do you think? 


	7. Chapter six

"OOOOooooooo, my achin' legs!! Ryan loves, loves, loves bumps, so we skied bumps aaalllll day. And I'm talkin' huge bumps, big as me bumps. Yeah, I seriously doubt you people care.YEAH, I SKI LIKE A GIRL, YOU GOT A PROBLEM WITH THAT? Riiiight. Ok, that's my motto. Great, isn't it?  
  
Ok.I had several requests that someone associated with Alanna should sponsor Robin. Weeeeelllll... I don't want Robin guessing too fast who her mother is (but funny how if something is staring you in the face, you usually miss it???) but maybe it would be a good idea, because a bunch of people mentioned it..  
  
Disclaimer: Okay doke. You know the drill. Robin is mine. The rest is Tamora Pierce;s. I'm not putting up the person who won, 'cause I want it to be a surprise, but I will put it in my next chappie. 'Course, it should be obvious, right?  
  
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"Sir? If I may?" It was a tall, black-haired, black-eyed boy. Something deep inside Robin stirred, something Robin had banished there, something she was scared of. It rose up, and greeted Scott, reaching out to him. Something of the same substance was in him, it, too, greeted Robin's.  
  
"Yes, Scott, you may sponsor Chassie." The tall man turned on his heel. "Dinner, boys!" He called over his shoulder.  
  
"Hi, I'm Scott, if you haven't noticed already. I'm Daine's son. And Numair's, of course." He was looking at her, as if he wanted to see into her very soul. Robin closed up. The only thing she knew about this boy was that there was something familiar in him. Something Robin didn't want to know.  
  
"Right. Of course. Who else's could you be?" Robin said.  
  
Scott play-punched her in the shoulder. "Hey, you'll catch on pretty fast." He said.  
  
"I'll take that as a complement. Do you have wild-magic like yer mum?" Robin bit her lip as the street-cant slipped out.  
  
Scott pretended not to notice. "Yep. I can talk to horses, and a few other mammals. No reptiles at all. Or amphibians." The something in Robin flared up again, and for a fleeting second, Robin felt that she, too, could talk to horses. Not just horses, any animal, anything in her reach. Robin was getting freaked out. Usually, this something in her stayed down where she commanded it, but it was unbound now, and Robin was scared.  
  
"Something bothering you?" Scott asked, looking down at her.  
  
"No, nothing. Just nerves, I guess." Robin grinned up at him, and Scott grinned back, unconvinced. Then he stopped grinning; the grin just dropped off his face.  
  
"What? Something bothering you?" Robin teased.  
  
"Y-your eyes. They're purple." Robin made a face.  
  
"Listen," she hissed at him. "Just don't mention anything about that to anyone. I'd change 'em if I could, but I tried to make myself taller, once, and I'll never do that again. I can't change who I already am."  
  
Scott looked surprised. "You have the Gift, too?" He asked.  
  
"No, what do you mean; too?" Robin demanded. She didn't have the Gift, she knew that. Or did she?  
  
"Nothing. Just forget about it." Scott said, and continued walking down the corridor.  
  
"Okay, I have to go meet some friend, want to come along?" He asked.  
  
"Sure. Who are your friends?" Robin asked, glad to have the attention taken away from her.  
  
"You wait." Scott turned into a room. "This is the library," he said.  
  
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Soooo, who are Scott's friends? I already have one of them planned out. A couple others would do nicely. And what's up with Robin and the "something" inside her??? And does she have the Gift? Maybe. Maybe not. 


	8. Chapter seven

Okay, I think I made some people mad. Maybe I should rewrite that last chappie. But still, don't you think that Alanna would have forbidden her son/daughter to sponsor Robin?  
  
Disclaimer: Vane gave me the idea for Daine's son to sponsor Robin. But don't worry, all those prince followers, the prince is going to be part of her life, too. And Tamora Pierce owns most of this stuff.  
  
  
  
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Scott led her into the library. A group of boys sat around the table. "Hello," Scott said cheerfully. Robin was beginning to like this boy.  
  
The boys looked up. One looked almost exactly like the man on the hill, two were obviously twins, with mousy-brown hair and blue eyes. The third was a very big fellow.  
  
"That's Liam," Scott said, pointing to the boy who looked like the man on the hill. "That's Shelby and Brad," he said, pointing to the twins, "And that's Rayon." He pointed to the big youth. "And, everybody, meet the kid I'm sponsoring. Robin of Chassie."  
  
"Chassie?" The prince asked. "I've never heard of it. Oh, excuse my manners! Nice to meet you, Robin." Robin grinned and bowed.  
  
"Not very many people have heard of Chassie, highness, 'cause it's pretty small." Robin was glad that when she was younger, Stephan had insisted on teaching her how to talk right. But the "'cause" had just slipped out. She hoped that the boys would over look it. They did.  
  
"Oh, don't call me highness. It gets on my nerves." The prince said, and Robin looked into his eyes. The prince gasped.  
  
"Mithros!" He exclaimed. "Where did you get eyes like that?" He asked. Robin scowled, and Scott sent Liam a look that said, quite plainly- "Don't go there. She has already berated me for commenting on them." Liam nodded his understanding, as did the other three boys.  
  
Robin looked at Rayon. "Yer from Goldenlake?" She asked, trying to get the attention off her, and messing up on her speech.  
  
"Yeah. Don't tell me how you guessed." Rayon said. "And I should ask why you don't come from Pirite's Swoop." He teased. Robin's face blackened.  
  
"Why?" She asked.  
  
"Well, haven't you heard of the Lioness?" Rayon demanded. Robin raked her brain. She recognized the name, but she couldn't quite place it. "Alanna?" Shelby put in.  
  
"Oh, her!" Robin said. "O'course I heard of her. Why ye askin'?" Why couldn't she speak right? The longer she was staying with these boys, the worse her speech became. The look on the boys' faces told her that they had realized it, too.  
  
"Well, among many other things, Alanna's famous for her eyes. They're purple, just like yours." Brad said.  
  
*That's odd. I wonder if I'm her daughter.* The thought quickly was dismissed from Robin's brain. It was completely ludicrous.  
  
"Well, uh, les go get some grub?" Robin said nervously.  
  
"Some what?" Shelby demanded.  
  
Robin blushed to the roots of her flaming red hair. "I meant food. I'm hungry." She muttered, and turned to go to the mess hall, forgetting that she wasn't supposed to know the way.  
  
Rayon, Shelby, Brad, Liam, and Scott talked as they followed Robin. "Some weird kid you are sponsoring, Scott." Shelby said.  
  
"I didn't know he was going to be so, well, weird." Scott defended himself.  
  
  
  
"He talks like a street-rat." Liam mused. "But I guess that could be from his coming from such a small fief."  
  
"And his eyes!" Brad offered. "Where do you suppose he got eyes like that?"  
  
  
  
All the other four boys shrugged their shoulders. "He has wild-magic." Scott commented. "I don't think he knows it. He has something else, too. But I can't tell what it is, and it's not the Gift."  
  
"What do you mean?" Brad asked.  
  
"Well, it's there. I can feel it. It is magic, and very like the Gift in most ways, but not."  
  
"Not what?" Rayon asked.  
  
"I don't know. And that is what is so frustrating! It's not the Gift."  
  
"Well, you should talk to Daine about his wild-magic. You know how hers got out of control when she was a kid." Liam, always practical, said.  
  
"His magic is stronger then mine. But he locked it up. It will be very hard to train him." Scott muttered.  
  
"Daine can train him, though. And if she can't, Numair can. After all, he trained Daine, and he didn't have a speck of wild-magic." Shelby said.  
  
"For Mithros's sake! The boy does have a name, you know." Rayon said. "And he would probably prefer to be called by it then just him."  
  
"Wait, aren't you supposed to be sponsoring him?" The prince suddenly asked.  
  
"Yeah," Scott said. "Your point being.?"  
  
"He's leading us down there." The boys ran to catch up with Robin, who was entering the mess hall.  
  
"Well, I see you decided to show up." She said arrogantly.  
  
Rayon showed them to a seat, and the tall man led them all in a prayer to Mithros. Then the eating began.  
  
Robin's eyes almost bugged out when she saw all the food, and eagerly filled her plate full.  
  
"Hungry, are we?" Liam asked, as he went to spoon some potatoes out of a bowl, only to find that Robin had beet him, and eaten them all.  
  
"Quite." Robin said with her mouth full, making her sound like she said. "Colf."  
  
"How much manners do you suppose they taught him?" Rayon muttered under his breath to the other four.  
  
"None." Scott replied. "Let's just hope his fighting skills are better then his manners."  
  
"I wonder if he has any book learning." Shelby speculated.  
  
"I doubt it. You have heard the way he speaks. Like a street-rat. And he eats like one, too. You kind of expect him to start stealing stuff from you." Brad said, unfortunately not keeping his voice down.  
  
"I'd not nick nofin' from ye. Persally, I don' think yer worth it." Robin said, then went back to eating. The boys raised their eyebrows at each other. "And don' think I aint see that," Robin put in.  
  
After dinner, everybody went to bed, and Scott went to talk to him mother. He walked through the hallway, thinking. Robin was an odd sort, but for some reason, Scott trusted him. He found his mother's door and knocked on it. "Yes?" She said, poking her head out her door. "Oh, it's you, Scott. Come in."  
  
Scott entered, and sat down. "Mum, this kid I'm sponsoring, he's got wild- magic. I don't think he knows it, but I think he should be trained."  
  
"I'll see to him. Tell him to come to my room after hours. That will give us more time to work together. Go and tell him, son." Daine said. Scott got up and left. His mother was always short.  
  
He knocked on Robin's room. No answer. He knocked again, louder. Still no answer. "Robin?" He asked, then went in. The room was deserted, but the window was open. "Dumb kid." Scott said, and went out the window, too. Unfortunately, Scott was not an expert climber, and got stuck on his way out. He could neither push his was out or in.  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
After dinner, and Scott had dropped her off, Robin had immediately climbed out the window. She needed to talk to Stephan. Over dinner, she had decided that she could enjoy becoming a knight, but that she had to still be King, too. So she had decided for Stephan to tell her everything, and hopefully she could deal with it. It was not an ideal plan, but it would work. Or so Robin hoped.  
  
"Stephan!" She called into the stable.  
  
"Whater ye doin' down 'ere, lass? Ye're supposed to be in bed." He said, dropping down from the loft, and falling into step beside her.  
  
"Stephan, will ye bring me news from the city? I'll try ter deal wif bein' King an' a page. It might even be fun. We'll jest need a secret language, so we can talk ter each other in the open, and not have ter worry about bein' over-heard."  
  
"I knew ye'd do it. Yer jest like yer mother in that perspective. We'll work on a language, an' ye need ter practice yer speakin' right. Yer already worse."  
  
"I know. The more time I spend at the castle, the worse it gets." Robin said, then went back to her room, only to find Scott half out the window.  
  
"What der ye think yer doin'?" She squawked the moment she found him.  
  
"I was, er, just going to find you," Scott gasped, it hurt to talk. Being stuck in a window hurt.  
  
Robin pushed him back in her room, and followed cat-like behind him. "And what did ye need ter find me fer?" She demanded.  
  
"Well, my mother just wants to meet you after hours tomorrow." He said, rubbing his shoulders.  
  
"Where does she live?" Robin stipulated.  
  
Scott explained to Robin where his mother lived, then left. Robin sat down to work on Stephan and her language. THEO- take his ear off. AC- another chance. DAWH- do away with him. She came up with a whole list before falling asleep. *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Okay. *Wipes sweat off brow* That was a long one. 


	9. Chapter eight

Hi, all my reviewers!! Okay, I've decided to put my thanx up every five chappies, when I do a "Not A Chapter". Is that okay with everyone? I hope so.  
  
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The next day, she was woken up early. She always woke up early, and she always slept light; it would not do for a would-be-assassin to sneak up on her while she was asleep. But with the birds cheeping and twittering and peeping outside her window, Robin found it impossible to sleep.  
  
Cursing her name for being related to birds, Robin clambered groggily out of bed. Pinching herself to wake herself up, she grabbed the list of words she had written down the night before, quickly scrawled another, untidier one for herself, and stuck the first in her pocket of the clothes she had slept in. Then she left her room to find Scott. The torches in their brackets along the hallways were still lit, and Robin knew that she was only half awake as she knocked on Scott's door, and entered.  
  
"Wake up, sleepy-head!" She said, pulling the covers off him. Scott groaned and pulled them back up. "Come on," she wheedled, "It's time to get up!"  
  
Scott threw the blankets off himself. "Do you have any idea what time it is?" He demanded of her. Robin shook her head. "It's time for normal people to sleep!" He snapped at her, and rolled over, bringing the covers back over him. Robin, seeing that she wouldn't get any more out of him, left to find Stephan. Born and raised as a thief, she knew he would be up.  
  
And he was. Singing off-key as he cleaned out the horse's stalls. "Hey, Stephan!" Robin said cheerfully as she entered the stalls he was working in.  
  
"Hi, lass. You got the language?" He asked, leaning on his pitchfork and wiping his brow with his shirt sleeve.  
  
"Yep. Got 'em all writin' down," She said, proudly giving the list to Stephan. "Ye'd best memroise it, then burn it. Aint do us no good if some- un finds it." Stephan nodded, and looked her over.  
  
"Mithros, lass!" He exclaimed. "Did you sleep in those clothes?"  
  
Robin looked down at her wrinkled clothes. "Yeah. . ." She said, wondering why Stephan, of all people, was worried about her sleeping in her clothes.  
  
"Look, yer not on the streets anymore. Yer not sleep in yer clothes." He said, keeping his voice lowered.  
  
"Then what am I ter sleep in? I'm not gunna sleep with nadda but my birthday-suit!" She exclaimed indignantly.  
  
"Didn't they give you clothes?"  
  
"Yeah. . ."  
  
"Well, they gave you somethin' ter wear in the night. Probably looks like a white, flowy thing. . ."  
  
"That? It looks like a dress! I aint gunna sleep in it." Robin argued defensively. Then she looked at Stephan. One look at his face and she knew she had to sleep in that dress thing. "Oh, alright. I'll sleep in it. An' I'll go change. . . Memroise it!" She commanded, and left the stalls, muttering under her breath about the things this world was coming to.  
  
Robin went back to her room and looked around for her clothes. She finally found them where she remembered putting them; under her mattress which she had pulled onto the floor, being afraid that rats would get her in the night. She looked helplessly at the hose, then tried to pull them on. She ripped two pair before she had them on right, then she turned her attention to her shirt. It was a button-down one. She hated button-down shirts. She had to re-button her shirt three times, because she kept missing a button. The tunic was easy - she'd worn them for dress occasions, thought, in the Court of the Rouge, they were scarce - as were the boots. Then she went to wake Scott up - again.  
  
She banged on his door for a while, then let herself in. Scott was in the middle of getting dressed: his crimson hose were on, but rumpled, his creamy-white full-sleeved shirt was unbuttoned, and his gold tunic was nowhere to be seen.  
  
"Well, good morning, early-bird," He said, falsely cheerful.  
  
"Right now I'm not particularly happy with birds," Robin said sourly.  
  
"Oh," Scott snorted, "You got Sir Keladry's old page-room. The sparrows probably wanted you to feed them," Scott dragged his tunic out from under his bed and pulled it over his head. Then, cursing, drew it off, buttoned his shirt, and put on his tunic again. "I see you had trouble getting dressed," he commented, seeing the rumpled tunic and hose.  
  
"Yeah, I spose I wasn't quite awake," Robin lied, as Scott straitened her clothes out.  
  
"Okay, Let us go eat." Scott said, and led her out the door. "Do you start training today?" He asked as Liam, Shelby, Brad, and Rayon joined them in line to get food.  
  
"Yep." Robin said shortly, her attention was focused on the food. Shelby rolled his eyes as he helped himself to pancakes, then did an impression of Robin, staring at the food as if it was the most wonderful thing he had ever set his eyes on. Brad shoved him, muttering something about the boy probably didn't eat much at his fief, but his eyes were sparkling with laughter, as were everybody else's.  
  
The trainer said a short prayer to Mithros, then allowed everybody to eat. Robin ate with the same enthusiasm as the night before.  
  
Then it was time for morning classes. "First is reading and writing," Shelby told her, and was immediately shoved by Scott.  
  
"I'm sponsoring Robin," he said. Shelby grinned at him, and Scott smirked back. Rayon slapped them both.  
  
"Well, I can do those," Robin said, grabbing Shelby's wrists in one hand and Scott's in the other to keep them from fighting any more. 'I'm glad Stephan taught me. I never knew why he did,' she said silently to herself.  
  
"Good, but I'm sure the masters can find something for you to do," Liam said, leading her into a room.  
  
After reading and writing, there was mathematics, which Robin hated with a passion, then deportment, then history. Mathematics was awful, deportment was worse, but Robin thought that she could actually learn to like history. By the midday, Robin had a whole stack of papers to go through.  
  
"How am I sposed ter get this all done?" Robin demanded, flapping the papers in her friends' faces.  
  
"In your free time," Liam said, who was reading his deportment as he wolfed down some bacon.  
  
"What free time?" Robin inquired.  
  
"Like now, for instance," Brad said, who was working on his mathematics and eating. Robin stopped protesting, and ate. Brad shook his head.  
  
"I swear that boy cares more about food then anything else," he muttered under his breath, and was jammed in the stomach by Shelby's elbow.  
  
Next, they went outside to the training courts.  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
okay, I'll write later. My poor hands. . . . . ;) I am happy (, happy ;), happy :D!!!!!!! Don't ask, u don't want to hear. . . . . . And what is the name of the trainer??? I am lost...;) 


	10. Chanpter nine

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Next, they went outside to the training courts. Robin was in a better mood; she was much better at the fighting arts then the thinking arts. She wasn't slow, she was just better at the first. 'Nice day ter be trainin',' she thought as she sloshed through ankle-deep mud; it had rained the night before.  
  
"Today, you'll learn how to fly," Scott joked as they approached two firmly- built people sitting on a fence.  
  
"Well, they will actually be teaching you how to land after you have finished flying," Shelby put in at the surprised look on Robin's face.  
  
"Good morning! I am the Shang Puma, and this is the Shang Hawk," said a burly young man, pointing to another muscular young woman. "Today, we are going to teach you how to fly."  
  
The Shang Hawk said, "Well, actually, we will actually be teaching you how to land after you have finished flying."  
  
She leaned forward, fell, and as she did so, slapped the ground, emitting a loud slap! as she hit the ground, making most of the pages jump; Robin stayed her ground. She had heard and seen people do this so many times it was almost a natural sound to her.  
  
"Alright, the Shang Puma and I found the perfect place to begin our training today." She led them around a corner, the Shang Puma following her.  
  
"A giant mud-puddle. I doubt that the training master mentioned thankfulness for rain last night in this morning's prayer?" Robin bit her lip, she hadn't been listening to that morning's prayer, but shook her head along with everyone else.  
  
The Shang Hawk stepped into the knee-deep grime. "Who is going to be first?" She asked. No one answered or stepped forward. Robin grimaced; if the mud was knee-deep on the Shang, it was probably thigh-deep on her. The Shang Hawk saw her grimace.  
  
"How about you?" She asked, reaching out her hand. 'Ya know what she's goin' ter do. Let 'er do it.' Robin thought; she had been trained in Shang. She stepped into the filth, and held out her hand to the Shang.  
  
"Not exactly a giant, but don't worry, I grew when I was thirteen," the Shang Hawk commented, grasping Robin's outstretched hand.  
  
Robin had every intention of letting the Shang do what Robin knew she was going to do, until the Shang grasped her hand and pulled. Her training took over, and she pulled against the Shang, whose eyes widened in surprise. Then the Shang recovered, and pulled on Robin. Their combined tugs, going a different direction, made Robin over-balance, and fell, toppling the Shang Hawk with her.  
  
Everybody burst out laughing. Robin's eyes widened at what she had done, then she rushed to help the Shang to her feet. The Shang was making a funny noise, and it wasn't until she wiped her face that Robin realized that the Shang was laughing. Robin opened her mouth to say something, couldn't think of anything to say, and closed her mouth.  
  
"Don't worry about it, youngster," the Hawk said, patting Robin on the shoulder with a filthy hand. Robin smiled weakly. "That was a complete surprise. Whom did you learn from?"  
  
"The Shang Tigress," Robin replied, not expecting Hawk to know whom she was talking about.  
  
"You learned from HER? The Shang Tigress?" The Shang Hawk asked, amazed. Robin nodded. "She was the best Shang I ever knew. But, we each went our different way, I to the palace, she to somewhere- I have no clue. However, she must have stopped by your fief.  
  
"Now, will you let me throw you?" The Shang Hawk inquired. Robin nodded.  
  
Once again, the Shang Hawk took hold of Robin's hand, but this time, Robin let the Shang send her flying.  
  
Nonetheless, her training took control again, and Robin landed on her hands, curved into a forward roll, twisted around, one fist raised, the other groping down to her boot where she hid her knife. "Whoa! I don't know why or where you were trained to fight like that - I've never seen it - but you don't need to fight me to the death. Though, it could come in useful to you as a knight." The Hawk looked Robin over: her hands dropping to her side, her stance relaxing.  
  
"What is in your boot?" The Shang Puma's question surprised Robin, but she quickly regained her face composure.  
  
"Oh, nothin'. I jest was reachin' down ther ter regain ma balance." She said loftily, and she must have said it convincingly, too, because the Hawk and Puma both looked persuaded.  
  
"Right, one more time, lad. This time, let me throw you, and land the right way," the Shang Hawk said, and stepped back into the mud-puddle, with Robin close behind.  
  
Again, they grasped hands, and again Robin went flying, but this time, she hit the ground with a loud smack! that made everyone but the two Shangs jump. Robin clambered to her feet, and went back in line as the Hawk and the Puma nodded to her. It was someone else's turn to be embarrassed.  
  
Next was hand-to-hand combat- Robin excelled in that class, too; she had been taught that almost before she could walk, every street-rat was, or else died in their first fight.  
  
Then were staff lessons. This class was distressing, because, as a thief, Robin had been trained to use anything on hand as a weapon, but she had never used anything as long or as cumbersome as a staff. Nonetheless, Robin thought that she would catch on fast, she always did with the fighting arts; she just had trouble with the thinking arts.  
  
As she leaned forward to rap Shelby, who was telling her about algebra, and she was not listening, on the noggin, she thought that she might ask him to help her with the thinking arts and she would help him with the fighting arts.  
  
  
  
Subsequently there was archery, Robin was a fair shot - in fact the best in the Court of the Rouge - at throwing knives, and this seamed to her every bit as easy. You sighted along the arrow for a fleeting second, then let it fly. The archery master was very impressed with her skills, but Robin decided against telling him that if he trained his pupils in knife-throwing before he taught them how to shoot, they would probably be a bit better.  
  
After archery, there was horseback riding. Robin had been dreading this all day; the something inside her that was in Scott, too, had been furiously trying to reach out to any animal within reach, and Robin did not like it. She had also never ridden a horse in her life, but that was because of a certain promise she had once made.  
  
"So, what's next?" She asked, and her friends looked surprised. She hadn't asked that all day, but had somehow known what was coming next. (She was the King of Thieves, so naturally, she knew.)  
  
"Horseback riding," Shelby said; Robin seamed to have become a favorite of his.  
  
They continued walking down the grassy slope to the stables. Then they entered them. Robin stopped dead, making Shelby bump into her from behind.  
  
"What's the matter?" he asked.  
  
"Those're real 'oses," Robin said, disbelieving.  
  
"What did you expect- wooden ones?" Scott asked, who was already combing down his peach-colored mare, Sunlight.  
  
"No, I, but, I made a promise that I'd never ride a 'ose."  
  
"Please, call them HORSES!" Brad said, emphasizing the h and r, approaching his fidgety golden-brown steed, Fiend, Scott reached out his hand and stroked her. Immediately the mare calmed down.  
  
"Would you stop raggin' on 'im 'bout 'is language?" Rayon demanded, mounting his roan mare, Firefly.  
  
Brad threw up his hands in defeat, "Now you are talking like him!"  
  
"And that him has a NAME!" Rayon said.  
  
"Pick a horse, Robin, or the training master will have your hide. It doesn't matter what you promised, I'll tell the horse that you have to ride her, and cannot help it that you had to break your promise." Scott said, coming out of his mare's stall, and pulling on Robin's wrist to get her to move.  
  
~Don't mind the boy, lass,~ a soft whicker filtered through Robin's mind. She turned around to see the most beautiful mare she had ever seen - she was rather large for a mare, and was a beautiful burgundy with a flowing midnight-black mane and tail, a tiny creamy-white star on her forehead, and white specks on her coat around her hooves.  
  
~Did you just talk to me?~ Robin asked, in her mind.  
  
~Is it surprising?~ The mare demanded. Robin thought about it. No, it actually hadn't been surprising to hear the mare talk.  
  
"I'll take this un," Robin said out loud.  
  
"That's Starlight, she's a little big, and a lot frisky. Do you still want her?" Scott came over to look.  
  
~You don't have to choose me,~ Starlight whickered.  
  
~Nonsense. I have ter choose ye, ye're the first animal I've ever let my magic work on,~Robin admitted. Out loud, she said "O' course I wan' 'er." Scott gave her saddle and reigns, Starlight told her how to put them on, and soon they were ready to go.  
  
~Alright,~ Starlight said. ~Go to my left side, and put your left foot in the stirrup.~ Robin followed Starlight's instruction. ~Now, swing your right foot over the saddle, and settle in.~ Robin did so.  
  
~You've never ridden, have you?~ Starlight asked.  
  
~No,~ Robin admitted.  
  
~It shows. You ride like a sake of flour.~  
  
~Thanks for the compliment.~ Robin said sarcastically.  
  
~Now, just remember, I'm being patient with you.~ Starlight reminded Robin, who agreed that she remembered.  
  
The rest of horseback riding lessons went pretty fairly, except that Robin kept forgetting to pay attention to the training master, and instead, talked to Starlight, who was being frisky and annoying and not paying attention to Robin.  
  
Finally, the lessons were over, and it was time for dinner. "Now for a nice, hot bath," Brad said, and instantly ran into Robin, who had stopped in front of him. "Now what are you doing? Trying to get run over?" Brad snapped at her. Robin stuck out her tongue and crossed her eyes at him, making Liam snort with laughter.  
  
Then she turned to Scott. "We're takin' a BATH?" She demanded.  
  
"Well, it usually helps relax your muscles." Robin turned around and marched out the door, going against the steady flow of pages and squires. "Where are you going?" Scott hollered at her.  
  
"To go see Stephan!" She called over her shoulder.  
  
"What has Stephan got to do with taking a bath?" Brad bellowed after Robin, but she decided not to answer.  
  
"STEPHAN!!!" She hollered as soon as she got to the stables.  
  
"What?" Stephan asked, shooing the last lonely page out the door, and eyeing Robin suspiciously.  
  
"You ain't never told me that we 'ad ter take BATHS 'ere!" Robin roared at him.  
  
Stephan bit his lip. "I didn't tell ye acause ye wouldn't have agreed ter becomin' a knight 'ere." He told her. "Now, lass, bathes aren't that bad, honestly! Ye could even learn how ter enjoy 'em." Robin pretended to faint. "Stop that nonsense! Bathes really aren't that big a deal!" Stephan said.  
  
Robin peaked one eye open. "Do ye take 'em?"  
  
"Yep." Came the short reply.  
  
Robin stood up. "Alright, I take 'em. I'll jes 'ave ter take 'em in my own room." She said, and turned to go, but Stephan stopped her.  
  
"Got a job fer ye; after all, ye are the King," Stephan said, and handed her a note. Robin sighed, and put the folded parchment in her pocket. Thinking of all the other papers sitting on her desk in her room, she walked back into the castle, up to her room, and tentatively took a very short bath. Then she picked up her deportment papers, and headed down for dinner.  
  
After dinner, Scott pulled her away, and handed her a little token: a round piece of glowing metal with a hole in the middle. "Don't forget. After hours, my mother's room. That token means that you can be up and about after hours." And left.  
  
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	11. Chapter ten

I've already disclaimed  
  
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Robin trudged back up to her room. It had been a long day, but she still had those papers, and Scott's mother wanted to see her - after hours! And wasn't Scott's mother Daine? Why would a wild-mage want her? Then Robin remembered that afternoon at the stables. She had magic, wild-magic. Robin wondered what animals she could talk to, then sighed, she had work to do.  
  
First she studied mathematics, and did five of the six problems she had been assigned before she got bored and decided to do deportment. She practiced bows and reading her assigned etiquette for two hours, then went on to reading. She read her assigned poem, and then rewrote it, using the best handwriting she could muster, which, unfortunately, was not very good.  
  
  
  
Then she looked at the letter Stephan had given her.  
  
Dear King of Thieves,  
  
I am reminding you that you are the King of Thieves by titling all of my letters that - it would not due for you to forget. Jig stayed out late last night, got drunk, and lost all his goods.  
  
Your faithful servant,  
  
Stephan  
  
Jig was one of Robin's favorite thieves, and was disappointed to here that he had disobeyed her commands. On the other side of Stephan's note, she scrawled: warn him. George, the King of Thieves before her, had come up with a good system. You warned them the first time, took one ear off the second time, and took the other ear off the second time, and, well, that's all that's attached. Just like George, Robin liked things done right.  
  
  
  
Robin looked out the window. It was getting dark, and must be near after hours. She stood up, stretched, and left, taking the token Scott had given her with her. She quickly found Daine's room, and knocked on the door. The door opened, and Robin found herself staring at a middle-aged woman.  
  
"So you are the little wild-mage!" She grinned, and led Robin inside. "The sparrows told me all about you this morning. They couldn't believe that someone without wild magic fed them, and then, when a wild-mage does come along, she completely ignores them!"  
  
"I'll feed them, I just didn't know that was what they wanted." Robin said, concentrating on making her grammar right.  
  
"But didn't they tell you?" Daine asked, putting a teakettle on the fire.  
  
"No. When - well, I've shut myself from my magic for a long time. When I met Scott, it started going haywire." 'Oh, good move, talk street to her, then she'll really understand what you're tryin' to say to her.' Robin thought.  
  
"Haywire?" Daine asked.  
  
"It means, um, crazy, out of control?"  
  
"Okay. Well, since you shut yourself out from your magic for a long time, it will be harder to train you. Do you know what animals you can talk to?"  
  
"I can talk to horses. Other then that, I haven't the faintest inkling."  
  
"Faintest inkling?"  
  
"I have no clue."  
  
"Oh. Well, try tomorrow, then come tell me what happened. I will talk to Numair, and try to settle on something." Robin took that as a dismissal, and left, thanking Daine.  
  
After Robin left, Daine went to talk to her son. She listened at the door for a while. Scott, Liam, Rayon, Shelby, and Brad were going over their homework together. Or, at least, that was what they were supposed to be doing. They were talking.  
  
"We should invite him to join us," Daine was sure that was Shelby.  
  
"Why? He couldn't help any of us with this stuff." That was Brad.  
  
"He has a name: use it!" That was Rayon.  
  
"No, but we could help him. And he could help us with hand-to-hand combat, or something. I bet that he was the best first time page ever! He caught on to every thing so fast!" Said Liam.  
  
"He has a name," growled Rayon.  
  
"I agree. We should ask him to join us. I know I need help with archery." The was Scott.  
  
Daine entered, and was a rustling of papers as everybody pretended to be working. "Scott, you never told me that he had something other then wild- magic."  
  
"Well, I didn't know what it was. Just like with his wild-magic, he pushed it so far down that it was barely recognizable as there. I only felt his wild-magic because I have it." Diane nodded. "Do you have any idea what it is?" Scott asked.  
  
"I haven't the faintest inkling. I only know that it will go haywire if it is not soon taught." Daine said and left, but stayed at the door to listen.  
  
"Where did your mom learn street-cant?" Liam asked.  
  
"I ain't got no faintest inkling." Scott said, making everyone laugh.  
  
"I do." It was Shelby.  
  
"Where?" They all asked.  
  
"Robin."  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* 


	12. Not A Chapter

Hi, the promised Not A Chapter is here! Prepare for torture!!  
  
Violet eyes: I'm calling her lad not boy 'cause that's how they do it in the book. I think.  
  
Tigress FN : Yes, she needs lessons on her English, but think of Briar. He was really bad, too. And Robin just became the KoT. I'll explain in a following chapter. Why can't Robin say she is a girl? Well, she was wondering around as a boy, then Stephan took her to the duke, and she had no time to change! She could not think of a graceful way to say 'I am a girl'. Why she was wondering around as a boy will be explained in a chapter to come, the same one that explains how she became the KoT. And I won't wait for reviews anymore, nor shall I demand them.  
  
Sari-IceElf: As Tigress FN said, parallel universes. Sorry to have bothered you about that, and thanx for pointing that out for me! You had to do a lot of reaseach for that, I bet. . .  
  
Anastazia Silverwind: Hehehehehe. I guess it was fun . . . . Um, can I ask who Bob is? Thanx for giving me all those ideas for sponsors!  
  
Just a Girl: Your first question(how did a 10 year old end up as the KoT?) is going to be answered in a following chappie.  
  
Vane: Thanx! I love accents, too. Ha! You told me to let Daine's son sponsor Robin. (She told me to tell you that she's not sure she likes the idea or not ;) What are your other questions? I really need to know!!!  
  
Okay, I think I got every 1! Now I have to ask some questions.  
  
1. Are my chappies too long, too short, or, ;) , just right?  
  
2. Do you think there should be romance in here? Put RS if you want there to be romance soon, RL for romance later, and so on. Put R/SH if you want it to be Robin and Shelby, R/B if you want it to be Brad, R/S if you want it to be Scott, I think you get the point! Put R/? if you want there to be romance, but want a later kid to come in and be her lover.  
  
3. I don't want Robin to be a Mary Sue. Any ideas to make her less perfect?  
  
4. When, how, and who should first discover that Robin is a girl?  
  
5. When, how, and who should discover that she is the KoT? I already have an idea, but I want to see what everyone else thinks. . . .  
  
6. Any ideas for a new title/summary? Mine really suck. . .  
  
7. What should the something else that's not wild-magic be? I had an idea, but forgot to write it down, and as a result, forgot it. 


	13. Chapter eleven

I've already disclaimed  
  
WOW! I got a LOT of reviews! Thanx, everybody!! Now I'm getting death threats. Oh dear. ;) I can live with it. Actually, I have to update: I'm addicted to my own story. Shame on me. And MANY people said I couldn't fix Robin's mary sueness. Oh well, hopefully it wont ruin my story. . . Oh, and sorry Vane, I guess I got you and Tigress FN mixed up, sorry! Yes, I do believe it was you who said the parellel universe thing! Oh, and THANX for saying that(it got me out of a kind of tight spot!!)!! Tigress FN: in one of your reviews, you said R/G. Whatcha mean? I know; I'm dumb. ;)  
  
Disclaimer: I have already disclaimed, and I'm getting bored of it. Vane gave me the idea to have Scott sponsor Robin.  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
The next morning, Robin woke up early and sat by the window, waiting for the sparrows. They came. Robin opened her mouth, closed it, and opened it again. She wasn't sure how to start.  
  
~You going to talk to us or not?~ A chirpy voice demanded in her head.  
  
~O' course I was goin' ter talk ter ye!~ Robin snapped at the sparrow.  
  
~Temper, temper. You need to learn how to control that temper of yours, lass.~ A sparrow landed on Robin's shoulder.  
  
Robin scowled at her. ~Surprised I can tell you're a girl? Don't be. I'm smarter then most humans think. They seem to think that they were the only ones gifted with a brain.~  
  
Robin swatted at the sparrow, who flew up out of Robin's reach. ~So, when are you going to stop lying to everybody, and tell them you're a girl?~ The sparrow demanded.  
  
~Ye can jest stay outa my business!~ Robin spat at the sparrow, then went to get dressed.  
  
'Awful sparrows,' Robin thought.  
  
~Hey, I heard that!~ The sparrow screeched at her.  
  
~Like I care?~ Robin demanded, grabbed her homework from the day before and her letter to Stephan, and slammed out of her room. In her temper, Robin didn't realize that the window had closed after her, and the sparrows were locked in her room.  
  
Stalking down the hallway, Robin wished she didn't have wild-magic. Those birds were awful! Not only that, but now there was a twittering, buzzing, barking, meowing, and clicking noise constantly in her head. And Robin was scared of magic; that was why she had pushed her magic down so far in the first place. Magic, in Robin's opinion, was completely uncontrollable.  
  
"Why the glum face?" Shelby asked her, falling into step beside her, and draping his arm over her shoulders.  
  
"I tried talkin' ter the sparrows. They're awful!"  
  
"Ah, you shouldn't have tried them first; sparrows can be very smart- alicky." Scott said, coming out of his room.  
  
"The first sparrow I see is going to be speared, plucked, and roasted." A grumpy Liam said.  
  
"Ye wouldn'!" Robin said, she must like those sparrows after all!  
  
"I would." Brad said. "What are we talking about?" Shelby shoved him, and a miniature fight started in the middle of the hallway.  
  
Ignoring the twins, Liam turned to Robin. "So, I was thinking, would you like to join us to study? You could help us with the fighting arts, and we could help you with the thinking arts."  
  
Robin's eyes lit up. "Would ye? I'd be glad ter have some help! I really don't get that alergabra thingy."  
  
"It is called algebra," Brad grunted, avoiding a punch from Shelby, but forgetting about Shelby's other arm.  
  
"Whatever," Robin said.  
  
"I'll meet with ye." Robin said.  
  
"Alright, my room, after you meet with my mother," Scott said.  
  
After breakfast, Robin and her friends went to reading and writing. The master for that class was disappointed with her writing skills, and assigned her another poem to work on. The mathematics teacher grumpily gave her another six problems to work on, plus the one she hadn't finished the night before. In deportment, she fell over twice doing her bows, couldn't talk right, and otherwise totally unimpressed the master of her abilities, who gave her more bows to practice, and another book to read on speech. She lived through history, at least Miles didn't reassign any papers, though he did give more for her to work on.  
  
"Now for something I can actually do," Robin said as they went to lunch.  
  
"What? Eat or fight?" Brad smirked at his own brilliantness, Robin punched him, and they were getting into a full-fledged fight before Liam broke them up.  
  
The fighting arts went well, except she couldn't concentrate on horseback riding because Starlight was teasing her about being a girl.  
  
After horseback riding, Robin stayed late brushing Starlight, and told her friends to go on ahead. "Stephan!" She hissed as soon as the last page was gone. Stephan come over to her.  
  
"Yes, lass?" He asked, examining Fiend, who was baring her teeth at him, at a distance. Robin gave him her note. His eyes lit up. "Oh, good. Ye haven't forgotten that yer the King of Thieves." Robin gave him a look. "I know, lass, ye'd never forget about yer people."  
  
When Robin left the stables, she knew she's have to hurry if she wanted to get to dinner on time. She was walking along, thinking about the seven algebra problems she had to do, when someone grabbed her from behind.  
  
"Alright laddie, hand over the throne. Yer just a boy; nobody wants ye ter have it!" A rough voice hissed in her ear. Robin kicked her attacker.  
  
"Just give me the throne!" The man jeered through his pain. Robin kicked him again, harder. Unfortunately, that kick was the only good one she got in; there were three big men to her one self, and, though she could have handled one, the other two were too much for her.  
  
As she lay on the ground, where she had fallen last, the men each kicked her aching ribs twice. Once for each foot, she supposed. "We'll leave ye 'ere ter think on it!" The leader hissed, and they left.  
  
While Robin lay on the ground, it started to rain. She lay in the mud, until she realized that she was late for dinner, and in trouble, and began trudging up to the castle. Hoping to take a bath before she went to breakfast, she walked quietly. But no such luck- as she rounded a corner, a maid saw her.  
  
"I believe the pages are eating now." She said. "Or they would be if they weren't waiting for you!" She grabbed Robin's upper arm - in a place where one of her attackers had kicked her especially hard - and dragged her to the mess hall door, and pushed her in.  
  
Robin tripped and fell, and the hall broke out in venomous laughter. Trying to ignore the laughter and the glaring looks that accompanied it, Robin got her food.  
  
"Chassie!" A cold, clear voice rang through the hall.  
  
"Yessir?" Robin asked, turning to look at the training master.  
  
"Report to me after dinner," he bellowed, and Robin went to sit.  
  
"Where have you been?" Brad demanded as soon as she reached them.  
  
"I fell down," Robin said, wincing as she sat down.  
  
"And I'm supposed to believe that the ground punched both your eyes, bloodied your lip, and pounded you all over the place all at the same time?" Shelby demanded.  
  
"You got in a fight." The prince said bluntly.  
  
"I did not!" Robin defended herself.  
  
"You did too!" Brad said.  
  
"Did not!"  
  
"Did too!"  
  
"Did not!"  
  
"Did too!"  
  
"Did not!"  
  
"Would you two shut up? You sound like a couple of two-year olds!" Liam exclaimed, exasperated.  
  
Robin stuck her tongue out at Liam, Brad followed suit, and Liam rolled his eyes. "My mistake. They are a couple of two-year olds," he said, and Shelby, Scott, and Rayon laughed.  
  
After dinner, Robin went to see the training master.  
  
"So, who did you fight?" He asked her.  
  
"I didn't fight. I fell down. Sir." Robin replied.  
  
The duke sighed. "You may go." Robin was surprised. Why wasn't the duke punishing her? "I said you may go," the duke repeated.  
  
"Go where?" Robin asked, even though she knew that asking that was not a smart idea.  
  
"Go clean the stables out." The duke said. 'Idiot,' Robin berated herself, 'Why'd ye 'ave ter go an' say that? Now ye jes' landed yerself with more jobs.'  
  
Robin spent two hours cleaning the stables out with Stephan, who tried to get Robin to tell him who she fought with, then, gathering all her papers, went to her room.  
  
When she opened her door, she was greeted by a flock of mad sparrows and their screeches. ~What do you think you were doing, locking us all in here?~ The sparrow who Robin had conversed with that morning shrieked at her.  
  
~I didn't mean ter, I forgot about ye!~ Robin snapped at him.  
  
~I am going to tell Daine!~ A younger sparrow whined, and flew out the door, not before pecking and scratching poor Robin.  
  
Robin sighed, and got to work; she only had two hours to do her homework. She settled down to work on mathematics, and couldn't get any of the problems. She stared at them for half an hour before she gave up with the excuse that she was going to work with her friends after she met with Daine. She practiced bows, before she gave up because every time she tried, she tripped over her own feet, and falling over hurt. Ignoring the speech book, she went onto reading and writing. At least she could read and write, even if she wasn't that good at it. She read her poem, and copied it down on a separate piece of paper. Then she decided to go talk to Daine; anything was better then tripping over one's feet, which made her feel like a dork.  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
Okay, for my regular reviewers, I rewrote chapter nine( I call it chapter nine, but on the thing, it's chapter ten), the one where she threw the Shang, read it and tell me if you think Robin is still too much of a mary sue. PLEASE??? Vane: there is no more golden mare ;) 


	14. Chapter twelve

I've already disclaimed Disclaimer: I have already disclaimed, and I'm getting bored of it. Vane gave me the idea to have Scott sponsor Robin.  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
She grabbed the pretty token Scott had given her; it was still glowing in its own aquamarine light, and headed down to Daine's room. Robin knocked on Daine's door, and a tall man who looked a lot like Scott - 'Well, Scott probably looks a lot like him,' Robin thought - opened the door.  
  
"Good evening, Robin. I am Numair, Daine's husband. She tells me that you have wild-magic. And she also tells me that you have something else that she or Scott cannot identify, and wants me to find out what it is."  
  
"I have something ELSE- other then wild-magic?" Robin demanded, thinking 'Oh, great, more stuff ter work on!'.  
  
"Well, yes. At least that is what Daine and Scott tell me." He opened the door further. "Are you planning on coming in? Or are you going to stay out there the whole night and freeze as we try to teach you?"  
  
"I guess I'll come in," Robin said, stepping inside.  
  
"Hello, Robin. How was your training today?" Daine asked, looking up from feeding the sparrows. Robin could have sworn that she saw the younger sparrow smirk at her.  
  
Restraining herself from smirking back at the smart-alik sparrow, Robin replied, "Fine."  
  
"Did you find any other animals to talk to?" Daine asked.  
  
"Those sparrows, a dog, a cat, a spider, a bee, a hawk, a fish, a-"  
  
"Okay. You can talk to a lot of animals. Now that I just know some things, we'll start your training. Numair, you can go now, we wont need you for a while." Daine cut in.  
  
Numair left, and Robin sat down, but Daine didn't start teaching her - she continued staring at Robin. "What?" Robin finally asked her.  
  
"You are a girl," Daine said bluntly. Robin stared at her.  
  
"Who - what - where - how'd ye learn that?" Robin demanded. The littlest sparrow chirped at her. "Those sparrows told you!"  
  
"Yes, they did. Don't be mad at them. I will not tell anyone. But why are you hiding it? You should know that now his majesty is letting women become knights." Daine said, scooping the sparrows out of Robin's reach; Robin continued frowning at the sparrows.  
  
"I didn't want ter be put on probation," she lied through gritted teeth. "Ye won' tell anyone?" She asked.  
  
"Oh, no, I will not, though I cannot see why you don't tell anyone." Daine said.  
  
"Not even Numaire?"  
  
"Oh, Numaire will know, when he comes to find out what kind of magic you have. Because you don't have the Gift, you cannot hide it from anyone with the Gift."  
  
"Or Scott?"  
  
"I do not have any reason to tell Scott, though he might appreciate it, as would all you friends," Daine said, then quickly changed the subject. "Alright, let us see if you can turn into a sparrow."  
  
Robin's jaw dropped open. "You expect me ter turn inter one of them brats? Why, in the name of Mithros, would I want ter do such a dumb thing as that?" She demanded.  
  
"Well, it is not really a question of wanting to or not, it is more of seeing if you can do it." Daine said, loosing her patients.  
  
"Can't I turn inter somefin' else?" Robin demanded, hoping that Daine would refuse.  
  
"Like what?" Daine snapped.  
  
"I dunno, how 'bout a wolf?" Robin grinned wickedly, showing all of her teeth.  
  
"Well, I guess you could, but it is easier if, for your first time, you change into something that you can actually see." Daine sighed; this lad - lass - was as stubborn as a bratty kid-goat!  
  
"Okay, can you imagine a wolf in your mind?" Daine asked Robin, who nodded, eyes closed. "All right now want to become that wolf. Be one with it."  
  
Robin concentrated on the wolf, wanting to become it, wanting to be one with it. But a small part of her was crying out 'Don't do it! Don't do it!'; she was still scared of magic, and could not help it. Suddenly, an odd sensation came over her, as if she wasn't in her own body anymore, much less in a human body. Shocked and surprised, Robin broke her concentration, and opened her eyes. She was lying in a heap on the blue-carpeted floor of Daine's and Numair's room, with Daine standing over her with a sparrow (the littlest one) on her shoulder and both of them wearing the same expression - it was one of shock. Robin cursed - she had seen that expression on people's faces before, and hadn't liked it.  
  
"Well, for a first-time student, you did very well. In fact, you almost became a wolf." Diane said.  
  
"Almost? How can someone be almost an animal?" Robin demanded, all this working with magic, something she feared most, was making her grumpy.  
  
"That's difficult to explain. I think that's enough for one evening," She replied as Robin stood up, and almost fell over with weariness.  
  
"Good," Robin muttered, and made to go out the door, but Daine stopped her.  
  
"You have to talk to Numaire," she reminded Robin. Robin cursed again, and sat down hard on the carpet, she didn't have much strength for standing up, for anything, for that mater.  
  
"Numaire!" Daine shouted down the hallway.  
  
"Yes, dear?" He replied.  
  
"It is time for you to work with Robin!" Daine called. There was a rustling of papers, and a grunting sigh, and Numair came down the hallway.  
  
"Alright, magelet, let us get to work." He sighed, and sat down by Robin, taking her hand in his.  
  
"Wait! What're ye doin'?" Robin snatched her hand away from Numaire.  
  
Numaire explained, "I am checking you for your magic ability. I have to go down and explore inside you." Robin's eyes widened. More magic. "It will not hurt in the slightest." Numair took Robin's hand again, and Robin had the strangest feeling that someone or something was invading her.  
  
Numaire was sweating with the effort, and his magic glowed black off him, radiating out into the room. At last, he let go of her hand, and he gradually stopped glowing, though he looked very worn.  
  
"I believe that I have found out what your 'other' magic is. It is not any kind of magic I have ever seen, but I am sure I can train you in it, after all, I did train Daine." Numaire said.  
  
"Well, what is it?" Robin demanded, impatience and magic making her grumpy.  
  
"I believe it is conflagration mag-"  
  
"Conflag-a-what's-it?" Robin interrupted, completely lost.  
  
"Conflagration; fire magic. You can control fire, basically. I should be capable of teaching you after Daine is finished with you, every evening. Except for tonight, forget tonight, you are too tired." Numaire went back to his study, and Daine scooted closer to Robin.  
  
"If there is anything you ever want to ask me about, well, something you would not ask your teachers about, you know, about being a girl, come and ask me. I am usually here, and I would be more then willing to help, I know you will probably need it." She whispered to Robin.  
  
"Thanks." Robin said, she didn't care about the offer right now, but she probably would in years to come.  
  
Then she quickly hugged Daine around the neck - the most affection she had shown anybody in years - and stood up to go. "See ya, Daine!" she called and walked out the door. She had some, well, a lot, of studying to do.  
  
That night's studying with her friends went pretty well, except that they were all trying to get her to tell who she had a fight with, Robin was sticking to her made-up, traditional 'I fell down' story, which was making her friends rather short-tempered.  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
Okay, LOOOOONG chappie! It has 1,333 words in it, or around there. . . Hope u enjoyed. And again, is Robin to mary sueish? 


	15. Chapter thirteen

I've already disclaimed Disclaimer: I have already disclaimed, and I'm getting bored of it. Vane gave me the idea to have Scott sponsor Robin.  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
That night, Robin was so exhausted, she fell asleep with her clothes on, something she had promised Stephan she would not do.  
  
'She was walking down a narrow alleyway. It was before she had become King, yet after George Cooper had left, there had been a King then, but he was so bad at the job, that every one refused to believe or even remember that he had once been King. Robin hoped that her people would at least remember her.  
  
As she turned around a corner, a man jumped out at her. They grappled for a few seconds, but the man, having surprise on his side, soon won. He held a knife to her throat, panting, pinning her against a grimy wall. Robin hardly dared breathe, let alone pant, the knife was pressed so close to her skin.  
  
"Alright, Scum of the Lioness. It was prophesized years ago, before that fool, George Cooper became King and then left his people fer that Lioness, that ye would be the next important King of Thieves after George Cooper. But whoever prophesized that hadn't been counting that the King between ye two dupes would have the heart to stop ye from becoming the King of Thieves. But I do."  
  
He dug the knife into Robin's throat, making her cough, choke, and splutter blood-stained saliva.  
  
"No one will save ye. No un wants to save ye. To them, ye are just another street-rat. They know ye were prophesized to be the King, but they don't want a child fer a King," he said, emphasizing the word 'child'. "Nobody has thanked me once since I have became King, but they will thank me for getting rid of ye. No one wants ye to become King." He dug his knife deeper into Robin's throat, and Robin knew she had to act fast, if she valued her life.  
  
Pretending to get weaker, she dropped to her knees. The man smiled, and continued to talk about himself. 'Self-centered brat,' Robin thought, groping for her knife hidden in her breeches.  
  
"- they will all bow down ter me and say, "Long live the King!" Robin jumped to her feet, dagger in hand.  
  
"Well, sorry ter disappoint ye, an' sorry ter spoil yer dreams, but nobody's gunna be sayin' "long live the King!" ter ye anytime soon!" She shouted, and dug the dagger deep into his throat, grimacing as dark blood pored over her hands.  
  
"Freak. Just like your mother." The man gasped, and fell down, dead as the grave.  
  
Robin stared at what she had done, then fainted.  
  
  
  
"Lift him up."  
  
"Careful now!"  
  
"Don't wake him!"  
  
"Be cautious! That's the King yer handlin'!"  
  
Voices awoke Robin. People were lifting her from a position that she seamed to have been in for a long time.  
  
"Gently! Lightly now, he's wakin' up!" Robin opened her eyes, only to look into the eyes of many others. She groaned and closed her eyes again; she disliked being the center of attention.  
  
"Lad. Wake up now, lad." It was a voice Robin recognized. She opened her eyes - Stephan. Stephan had taken care of her ever since she had been dumped on the streets, which was when she was a baby.  
  
"Wazza matta, Stephan?" She asked stupidly. "What's goin' on?"  
  
"Stephan was in a patient mood. "Yer King now. Ye jest killed the last un." He explained.  
  
Robin grimaced, remembering the fight she had had with the man, felt her throat, and looked at her hands. They were clean.  
  
"They cleaned ye up. Seemed they aint want to crown a blood-stained King, fer some reason." Stephan grinned.  
  
Robin opened her mouth, trying to speak, but nothing come out. Stephan took her from the people who were holding her. "I'll take care of him." He said, and carried Robin into the Dancing Dove.  
  
"Solmon? Can I have a private room?" Stephan asked the innkeeper.  
  
"Right ye are, Stephan. This way." Solmon led Stephan to an empty room.  
  
Stephan laid Robin, who was still having trouble talking, on a chair. "It's okay, lass. Now yer the King. It's a big job. Yer lucky that ye go 'round dressed as a boy. The people would never allow fer a girl ter become King. From now on ye must disguise yerself as a boy; don't let anyone know yer real identity. Do ye un'erstand me?" Robin nodded mutely.'  
  
Robin woke up, sweating. She had dreamed this dream often, after all, it was how she became the King of Thieves, but the words of the last King rang in her ears as they had never done: "Scum of the Lioness" and "Freak. Just like yer mother." They were clues to who Robin really was, who her mother was. But Robin wasn't sure she liked them. She wasn't sure she wanted a mother, especially not one who was a freak.  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
Hope ye like it! :D Word count is 810, fer those o' ye who care.  
  
Okay, LOOOOONG chappie! It has 1,333 words in it, or around there. . . Hope u enjoyed. And again, is Robin to mary sueish? 


	16. Chapter fourteen

Disclaimer: I have already disclaimed, and I'm getting bored of it. Vane gave me the idea to have Scott sponsor Robin.  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
Robin woke up again that morning to the screeching of sparrows. After the night before, Robin's fear of magic had increased, and she had no wish at all to talk to those awful sparrows. They always taunted her anyway, why should she talk to them?  
  
Robin pushed thoughts that she had had the night before about her mother. Or, at any rate, she tried to. Who was this 'Scum of the Lioness'? And was she really a freak? Or was the drunken King just trying to get on her nerves by insulting her mother? Robin thought that she had better not ask her friends, though why not, she knew not.  
  
After looking hopelessly at her 'bird-marked' papers (leaving them in her room with the sparrows had not been a good idea), Robin went down to breakfast.  
  
After breakfast, was, of course, reading and writing. "What is this?" Her reading and writing master demanded, when he saw her papers.  
  
"I spilled my ink," Robin declared.  
  
"This does not look like ink to me," he huffed.  
  
"Well, it is. My ink got all gloopy."  
  
"Harrumph! It looks like bird droppings to me, for some reason," he scowled down at Robin, who looked innocently back up. Her masters all yelled at her for turning in 'bird-marked' papers, and she was given them all to do again, along with new homework. Deportment was miserable, as Robin figured it would always be for her.  
  
"You must be patient! You must place your feet like this, not like you are going to fight! If you place your feet like that, you fall over!" Her exasperated deportment master cried out the fourth time she fell over, taking another page with her, trying to do her bows.  
  
As Brad stifled a snigger and was elbowed in the ribs by Shelby on one side and Liam on the other, Robin lurched to her feet, she wailed, "I don' get it! Why'm I learnin' how ter bow?"  
  
"You are learning so you can attend balls and dance well with the ladies." Her master replied huffily.  
  
Robin wrinkled her nose. "I don' wanna dance wif ladies, I wanna go on adventures an'," the deportment teacher cut her short.  
  
"You want, you want! Hasn't anybody ever told you that life isn't about wanting?"  
  
"That was sort of stupid, arguing with Snub," Rayon commented as they came out of deportment, using the deportment master's nickname.  
  
"Yeah, well I AM kind of stupid," Robin muttered under her breath, Snub had given her six extra pages to read on manors and speech, along with the ones she had been assigned the day before because she didn't know them.  
  
"Do not worry about it. If you hang out with us, some of our smartness is bound to rub off on you!" Shelby joked. Robin play-punched him in the shoulder, he swatted at her, she ducked, he missed, and fell on the ground. With a little bit of help from Robin, that is.  
  
"I can teach you bows, if you want," Brad offered after deportment. He surpassed all the pages in deportment, and was already beginning to work on some of the complicated dances that the men did at balls.  
  
Robin looked up at him. Ever since they had first met, they had been friends, but competitive ones. She knew what it meant for him to offer to help her. Concentrating on keeping her grammar straight, as it always bugged him that she couldn't (he wasn't the only one) she said, "Would you? I would be glad for the help."  
  
"All right, so long as you will teach me hand-to-hand combat. Deal?"  
  
"Deal," she agreed, and they shook on it.  
  
The rest of the day went moderately well. The Shang Hawk taught her a new Shang punch, and Robin was only too willing to learn it. Archery was turning into her favorite fighting art, knife throwing always had been her favorite at the Court of the Rouge, and it still amazed Robin that it wasn't practiced at the castle. Staff fighting was difficult, but Robin was dogged in trying to master it. Horseback riding was worse then staff lessons, because Robin was refusing to talk to Starlight, and Starlight knew this, and would not obey any of Robin's commands.  
  
After dinner, Robin went up to her room. She had decided to skip her magic lessons, her fear of magic had not lessoned during the day, and she had agreed to meet her friends in the court to help them with the fighting arts. They had decided that they would switch off, one day do homework, the next they would work in the courts.  
  
Scrambling out of the uniform that pages wore, she dressed in a loose, comfortable pair of dark bottle green breeches, and a comfy azure-colored shirt. She pulled on the worn pair of leather boots she had worn into the castle, and slipped eight knives into them; she had decided to teach her friends the art of knife throwing.  
  
Saying a cheerful goodbye to the sparrows; she was feeling in rather high spirits and not caring that she had magic, she left, whistling a bawdy jingle she had learned from a pub when she was six, down the hallway to the outside courts.  
  
She burst out singing as she opened the court doors, "'e fell ter beg upon his knees, But fer 'im I felt no mercy, 'e lifted 'is hands ter me, Clasped as if at the jury, I lighted down my sword ter draw, And hacked 'im inter pieces sma', I stood ther an' watched 'im fall, Ter 'is death I saw 'im fall -" she stopped abruptly. The training court was filled with her friends, and a bunch of other pages, even a few squires.  
  
"Oh no. Not in the name o' the Crooked God. I AIN'T doin' that." She spluttered, and turned on her heel to go out the door. Scott grabbed her arm.  
  
"You promised." He reminded her quietly.  
  
"I promised ter teach . . .you and Brad and Liam and Rayon and Shelby. I didn't promise ter teach. . . all them." She growled, waving her hand around the room for emphasis.  
  
"Yes, maybe you did not. But you never promised you would not. You will teach us all," Scott told her.  
  
Robin glowered at him. "I don't want ter do it!" She hissed.  
  
"But you will," He said.  
  
"Oh, but I won't." She snarled.  
  
"Oh, but you will."  
  
"Won't!"  
  
"Will!"  
  
"Won't!"  
  
"Will!"  
  
"WON'T!"  
  
"Would you two shut up!" Rayon shouted. "Liam is right - Robin is a two year old, and he makes anybody around him act like a two year old!"  
  
"Do not!" Robin shouted.  
  
"Yes, you do!"  
  
"Don't!"  
  
"Do!"  
  
"Don't!"  
  
"Do!"  
  
"Don-"  
  
"Robin!" Liam shouted. "We do not care if you are a two year old! We do not care that because you are a two year old, you cannot teach us!!"  
  
He struck a nerve. "Oh, alright. I'll do it." She growled.  
  
"Hey, do not worry, I knew you would." Scott assured her. Robin stuck out her tongue and crossed her eyes at him.  
  
"Okay, all ye people, right now I'm gunna teach ye archery." She reached down, and grabbed her four knives out of each boot.  
  
"What have knives got to do with archery?" A page demanded.  
  
"Ye'll see." Robin told him. Placing one knife in between each finger, she whipped around, spying a target some distance away, briefly aimed at the center, then flicked her wrist, sending four knives into the center of the target, those four quickly followed by four more from her other hand.  
  
She looked thoughtfully at the target. "Not bad, if I do say so myself," She grinned.  
  
Everybody stared at the eight knives circling around in the center of the target. Then they applauded, loudly.  
  
"'K, now, every one o' ye is gunna learn how ta do that,' Robin concluded, jerking her head at the target. She trotted over to get the knives, and when she returned, looked around.  
  
"Shelby, come here." She said, and he came forward. "'K, take hold of a knife, and fling it at the target," she instructed.  
  
Shelby grabbed a knife, and chucked it at the target, it just barely hit the outside. "Good. Now try again," Robin said.  
  
Soon, there were four people hurling knives at targets, six practicing hand- to-hand combat, four working with the staff - Robin wasn't teaching that class, she was wishing she was taking part in it -, and Brad and Robin were in a private little corner, involved in practicing bows.  
  
Brad sighed as, after the fifth time Robin had collided with him doing bows, he untangled himself from her. "Listen. You need to practice bows as much as you do the fighting arts." He growled at her.  
  
"An' ye think I'm NOT tryin', or practicing?" Robin demanded, close to tears, from the floor. "I don't really practice the fightin' arts, they's just come natural!"  
  
Brad grunted in reply, thinking. "Well, put it this way. Um. . . . well, I do not know, I just do not know how to help you."  
  
Robin wrinkled her nose. This was great; she might not pass as a squire if she couldn't bow. . .  
  
"That's it! I have it!" Brad shouted, making Robin jump. "Okay, there is a move very like bowing in hand-to-hand combat. It goes like this. Well, sort of, because I am not the best at hand-to-hand combat. . ." His voice trailed off, and he did a quick more or less a bow, from which he did an intricate series of punches and kicks.  
  
Robin stared in awe. In the thief world, the drill Brad was doing was considered to be roughly a dance move. She had learned it when she was five, never realizing that it might now help her learn a bow.  
  
"Now you try," Brad gasped, out of breath from the fast and complicated drill. Robin did, a few times to refresh her memory, then continued to practice it, focusing on the beginning bow move.  
  
Then she tried to do a bow. She didn't fall over, though it was a close thing, but Robin was ecstatic. She did a couple of handsprings to let off some of her happy energy, then hugged Brad tightly around the neck. "Yes, yes, YES!" she shouted gleefully.  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
That night, Robin stayed up late, doing her assigned homework again, and practicing bows. She had to be careful not to fall over, in case someone heard, and reported her for staying up late after hours. She was felling more contented then she had in days, except for one thing. She dreaded her next magic lesson with Daine and Numair. Robin didn't know how her magic teachers would react to her skipping a lesson, but she figured it wouldn't, couldn't be good.  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
Okay, not so long chappie. . . sorry! It has 1,896 words in it, or around there. . . Hope u enjoyed. And again, is Robin too mary sueish? I hope not. . . I'm trying to make her not. I'm felling happy. . . . . . . and bored. . . . . . .DOWN WITH AAAALLL GRAMMAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 


	17. Chapter fifteen

Tigress FN: I am just too darned lazy to post my story up as another title. . . .did that make sense? Anyway, how would you find my story again?  
  
Disclaimer: I have already disclaimed, and I'm getting bored of it. Vane gave me the idea to have Scott sponsor Robin.  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
Months passed, and Robin felt herself growing into the pattern of her new life. She talked freely with the sparrows and other animals as well, there was a certain wolf that had one day made its way to her room, and now followed Robin everywhere. It took Robin months to convince the training masters that it was tame, even with Scott and Daine helping her.  
  
Daine said it was good for her to have an animal follow Robin about like that; it got her used to her magic. Robin said that she would never get used to her magic.  
  
She got into the habit of secretly reading her letters from Stephan while Brad and Shelby helped Liam and Scott on their history, and Rayon pretended to be studying mathematics. Robin opened Stephan's letter.  
  
Dear King of Thieves,  
  
And again, I would like to remind you that you are the King of Thieves. Karl has been pestering me to tell you that you need to come to the city. He says that he and his friends miss you, need their King back in the city, and also that you are spending too much time at the palace; it will wear off on you. What would wear off on you he didn't say, but I believe that you know quite well what he was talking about.  
  
Your Faithful Servant, Stephan  
  
Robin grinned. Of course Karl was demanding that she come down to the city. He seamed to think that he was King, and could command her anywhere. She folded the letter and looked at her mental clock; time for her to go to bed.  
  
"Okay." Robin grunted as she stood up and stretched. "I'm gunna go ter bed."  
  
"'Night," her friends called after her as she left the room. Though, as she stood up, Stephan's letter slipped from her pile of papers, and drifted down to the floor, unnoticed by Robin.  
  
"Hey, what's this?" Shelby asked, grabbing it. "Dear King of Thieves," he read out loud, and then faltered to a stop. "King of Thieves?" He asked.  
  
Liam took the letter from him. It indeed was addressed to the King of Thieves. "What was he doing with a letter to the King of Thieves?" He wondered.  
  
Making a silent agreement together, the five left Scott's room, and went to Robin's room. They found their small friend sleeping on the floor. It was something she always did, though they did not know that.  
  
"Robin," Rayon whispered, shaking her.  
  
"Humahumph," she muttered.  
  
"Robin," Rayon repeated. Robin turned over. 'Pretend to be half-asleep,' she told herself. When she wanted to, she could be roused from the deepest sleep in milliseconds.  
  
"What?" She asked.  
  
Rayon looked at his friends, trying to decide how to tell Robin about what they had found. "We want to know what you were doing with this letter," the prince said.  
  
Robin looked at it. 'Gods be cursed,' she thought; it was Stephan's letter to her. "What I was doin' wif it? I aint doin' nofin' wif it." She mumbled, making her voice as garbled as possible.  
  
"Robin. We know you had it. Would you just tell us who you are? We know you are not Robin of Chassie." Liam told her, using her name for the first time ever. Frustrated, Robin grabbed the letter, and ate it.  
  
"Well, now you aint gota worry 'bout it," she growled, and rolled over, falling back to sleep. Her friends left, as they knew there was nothing else they could do.  
  
"Who are you?" Shelby whispered as he left.  
  
The next day the duke called her into his office. "You have worked hard, Chassie. Would you like to spend a day at the city?"  
  
Robin's eyes lit up like a torch. She could finally see and talk to her own people again! People who knew and loved her for what she really was. Trying to hide her pleasure - she was supposedly not used to going to big cities - she said, "Could I?"  
  
"Yes, but you must take along a person older then yourself, someone who knows the city and will keep you out of trouble." His eyes glinted when he said "trouble", Robin had a way of getting into trouble, and didn't have a knack for getting out of it. "You could take your friends, all of them if you wish."  
  
The next day, Robin, Shelby, Liam, Rayon, Brad, and Scott were on their way to the city. "Alright, Robin," Rayon said - he was the only one whoever said her name -, "Where would you like to go first?"  
  
Robin looked around. She saw her people doing their work, and her fingers itched to go join them, she hadn't stole anything (except for a couple of muffins, and. . . a couple other things) for months. Drawing her eyes away from her subjects, it would not due for her to get caught staring at them, she looked around. She was home, and it felt good. She was home.  
  
"Majesty," someone pulled at her sleeve. "Robin, it's swell ter see ya again!" It was one of Robin's closest friends - one who even knew that she was a girl - Karl.  
  
Trying to avoid her palace friends eyes' she bit her lip. "Listen, Karl," she said, gripping the lad by the shoulders, "Aint ya got ANY sense?"  
  
"Yeah, I got sense. Jest ye o' all people should know I aint use it very much," Karl smirked. Robin cursed him. "Don't say that, ya might hurt yer poor friends' ears," Karl joked. Robin was loosing her patience, and had to use all of her self-control to stop herself from smacking him.  
  
"Oh, come on, magi, jest come an' get a drink at the Dancing Dove. It aint gunna hurt ter let yer friends know who yar."  
  
"Robin?" The voice startled Robin. Her nerves broke, and she whipped around, punching the first thing that came into view. It was Shelby. Beet- red, Robin helped him to his feet out of the muddy streets.  
  
"Mithros, you are FAST," he muttered.  
  
"Sorry," Robin mumbled.  
  
"Um, who IS he?" Shelby asked, jerking his head at Karl.  
  
Karl did a mocking bow, and said, his voice high and sarcastic, "Oh, forgive my King. He really always forgets his manors, but I still cannot believe that he forgot to introduce me. After all, I AM his most trusted advisor. My long and lengthy name-"  
  
Robin shoved him, "Shut up!" She snarled as she sat on top of him.  
  
"Aw, come on! I was only joking!"  
  
To her palace friends, Robin said, "He's Karl. Don't mind whatever he says."  
  
"RIGHT," Brad drawled sarcastically.  
  
"So, where is this Dancing Dove?" Liam asked. Robin looked at her friends' faces, one by one. They were unmovable.  
  
"Oh, alright!" She groaned, "Come."  
  
Soon the seven entered a small tavern, it was almost empty, as most thieves liked to steel when they could see. Except for an old man asleep at the bar, the place was deserted.  
  
"Solmon, ya ol' bloke, get up an' fetch us a drink!" Robin ordered.  
  
"Right yar, Majesty, right yar," Solmon bounced out of his stupor, then looked around, baffled, at Robin's palace friends.  
  
"Like I said, Magi's a little absent-minded when it comes ter manors," Karl laughed. "As it so happens, I aint know who her-" he was cut off as Robin dealt him a blow. "- his friends are either." He finished, rubbing his arm.  
  
"Don't be such a baby," Robin smirked at him, then said, "Solmon, these're my friends. That's Liam an' Shelby an' Rayon an' Scott an' Brad." After the quick introductions, Robin and her friends were soon sitting at a table, sipping, lemonade.  
  
"So. . . You are the King of Thieves," Shelby said quietly.  
  
Robin looked up at him. "Yes," she whispered.  
  
"Well, that is a pleasant surprise. Any other lovely secrets you might want to tell us, before we get to fixed on the idea that we know who you are?" Brad said sarcastically.  
  
"Yes," Karl said.  
  
"No," Robin said.  
  
"Well, maybe," they said together. Robin's friends stared at them.  
  
"No," Robin said firmly.  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
Okay, not so long chappie. . . sorry! It has 1,484 words in it, or around there. . . Hope u enjoyed. And again, is Robin too mary sueish? I hope not. . . I'm trying to make her not. I'm felling happy. . . . . . . and bored. . . . . . . I'm SUPPOSED to be studying for a grammar quiz. . . . . . but this is funner. 


	18. Chapter sixteen

Disclaimer: I have already disclaimed, and I'm getting bored of it. Vane gave me the idea to have Scott sponsor Robin.  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
Robin was growing to appreciate the amount of time she was expected to spend on the fighting arts. Every minute she spent in the classrooms made her feel just a bit dumber then she had felt when she went in, but on the courts, every minute made her feel just a bit brighter. She needed this feeling that she could do something, the knowledge that she could do something well was giving her the strength to return to the classrooms each day.  
  
Her friends were helpful, too. They often went out of their way to sneak an answer to her, place her feet so that she didn't fall over when she bowed, and they all tried to help her to get over her unreasoning fear of magic.  
  
Staff lessons still gave her a hard time. Robin knew that she would probably never be very good at the staff, and even if she did practice more then she did, she would have to practice it every minute of the day to be even remotely good. Her staff trainer never let her forget that the staff was her nastiest fighting skill, and neither did Brad, or the rest of her friends, for that matter.  
  
Often, she would say, "But I can't do the thinkin' arts, an' I couldn't, even if my life was at stake." Every time she said that, she remembered that every second she was at the castle, her life was at stake, so did her friends.  
  
"But it is still nice to have you bad at something other then the thinking arts." One of her friends would always comment.  
  
Magic lessons continued with Daine and Numair, and Robin was beginning to feel as if she could get used to having magic. Of course, she reminded herself, she'd always had magic. She learned all different kinds of things with her conflagration magic, even why she had been able to stay out side on freezing nights as a thief; her magic heated her when she was cold. Wild- magic was becoming a social event for Robin, she talked to Daine about things she would never have told anyone, not even Stephan, though she would never tell Daine that she was the King of Thieves, and she hoped that Scott had never told her. If he had, Daine never showed any sign that she knew Robin was the King of Thieves.  
  
Together, one day, Robin asked Daine what she should name her wolf, as it always followed Robin around, she figured that it needed a name.  
  
Daine squinted at the wolf. "Well, it is definitely a she-wolf. I would suggest Akeeta or Keishka."  
  
"What about something normal?" Robin asked, looked at her wolf, who said, ~I'm NOT going to be called Keishka, or Akeeta.~  
  
Daine laughed, she had heard the wolf. "Oh, alright. How about Raja?"  
  
~I like that. Raja. It sounds powerful.~ Robin's wolf said.  
  
"Alright. Raja it is," Robin declared.  
  
One day, Robin was even able to make a fire with her magic. When she saw a rush of glittering sapphire-sea green flames with silver twinkles floating around them like foam rush from the tips of her fingers, she gasped, and broke the connection.  
  
"That is alright, magelet," Numair told her as glimmering luminous aqua balls of flame bounced harmlessly around the room. "For your first time, you did a good job." The various-sized balls - ranging in size from the smallest the size of a frog's foot, to the largest a little bit smaller then a newborn baby's fist - were beginning to settle down around the room, sticking to anything they landed on.  
  
"Good job!" She muttered afterward, in her room, and pulling the pretty balls off her wear. Suddenly, on impulse, she took a medium sized ball - one the size of a silver coin - and looked at it intensely. Then, she murmured a phrase that popped into her head - "Be covered" - and the beautiful orb was covered in clear glass. She took a silver chain - she had found it conveniently dangling from a lady's neck the other day - and molded her sphere to the center of the chain. It made a beautiful sapphire- green pendant with silver flickers floating around inside it. She clasped it around her own neck, and tucked it under her tunic, hoping that someday she would find out why she had just done what she had just done.  
  
Stephan continued to write her letters concerning thief matters, and whenever they were alone, he called her "Majesty", "Just ter remind ye that yer King".  
  
Every other night she studied with her friends, or helped her friends with the fighting arts. She still was horrendous at the thinking arts, though she didn't fall over so much when she did her bows.  
  
Months passed, along with her eleventh birthday, then she started nearing her twelfth birthday. Every once and a while, Robin would go down to the city on permission of the duke, and be with her people. Sometime her friends came with her, sometimes not. Karl was always glad to see her, and never tried to hide his feelings.  
  
One day, Stephan solemnly gave her a note. Robin read it as soon as she got out of the stables.  
  
Dear Majesty,  
  
Your subjects are demanding another public appearance. And I wish you a happy twelfth birthday, Majesty. (Karl does, too)  
  
Your Servant,  
  
Stephan  
  
Robin cursed. Now she had to pay a visit to her people, and she didn't have permission to go down to the city. (She had been very much a klutz one day, and tripped over a young maid, causing them both to crash down the stairs, right in front of the Duke. He had been convinced that she had been bullying the maid, even though they both protested it.) And, as for her birthday, as far as Robin was concerned, if a birthday wasn't when you were born, you might as well not have a birthday. But, now she was twelve; funny, she didn't feel any older. . . .  
  
There was something else with the letter: one more letter. Robin unfolded it.  
  
XXX Daughter,  
  
I am not one for making solemn speeches or announcements, so I hope you will forgive me the short letter. You are now eleven. I know that Stephan never told you your birthday, but we thought that was for the best. I am glad to hear that you are studying well, but you need to practice more with the staff and the thinking skills. Woops, I didn't mean to write that, XXXXXX. Would you stop reading over my shoulder? I'm trying to write to our daughter, now go away. Thank you. It is wonderful that you can fight hand- to-hand combat so well, and I am pleased that you have made friends to study with. Oh, I forgot. This is your mother writing, XXXX Daughter.  
  
Love,  
  
L. P. O., K. C.  
  
"A. L. P. O., K. C.?" Robin muttered. "Odd." She tried to read the x-ed out words, but couldn't.  
  
After she had finished teaching out at the courts, and telling Raja not to follow her, Robin climbed out her window, hoping that Scott wouldn't follow, and get himself stuck again.  
  
Silent as a mouse, Robin leapt from house-top to house-top. She had decided to give her people a scare - by dropping down from the ceiling. Of course, she hardly ever entered normally anyway. . .  
  
She grinned as she reached the Dancing Dove's roof, and dropped down a trap door to the floor level below, then to the next. She had reached the last trap door. Robin gently pried it open. There was a man sitting in her chair, which was directly below her: she couldn't see his face, as it was turned away from her.  
  
Letting out an eerie battle cry, Robin leaped through the trap door. She never looked very graceful when she was falling, and was relying on surprise and her cry alone to astound her people.  
  
The man looked up, flabbergasted, as Robin fell through the trap door. He was in the middle of jumping out of her chair when she landed; right in his lap. Robin glared at him. "I believe that this is MY chair!" She roared. The man quickly lifted her off his lap, stood up, and deposited her in her seat.  
  
"Thank ya," Robin grinned viciously at him, making him cower.  
  
She stood up on the seat cushion, and leaned over the back of the chair so she could see her people. "So, whacha wan' me fer?" She asked them.  
  
"We jes' wanted ya back wif us, Majesty," Someone hollered, and soon everybody chorused in, agreeing.  
  
It was a merry night, with lots of drinking (Robin refused the ale offered her, and insisted on lemonade). After a while, Robin grew bored, and slipped discreetly out into the hallway. "I thought I could find ya here," a voice said.  
  
Robin turned to look at who had spoken; it was Karl. "I told Stephan to write fer ya ter come down here," he said.  
  
"Whacha wanna talk ter me about?" Robin asked.  
  
"Well, not exactly talking," he leaned forward, and kissed her, right on the lips. Robin was so surprised, she didn't know what to do; she just stood there, absorbed in Karl's kiss. "That's fer luck, Robin," he muttered when he broke the kiss, and left.  
  
"What was that?" Robin felt herself asking.  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
Okay, not so long chappie. . . sorry! It has 1,722 words in it, or around there. . . Hope u enjoyed. Okay, here's a Title a friend suggested to me: "Sugar is Sweet: I Am Not". U like? Here's a summary: A girl with no identity strives to become a knight. With training masters out to get her, along with people who want her dead, will she make it?  
  
My friend, Gerald, the one I based Karl and Shelby on, was over at my house the other day, and read my fic. He says that some "Flouncy-douncy, pretty- girl-lady should try an' get Robin". I told him that that's what happened in The Song of the Lioness, and he said, "So?" Boys.. . . . .they're so. . . . . .frustrating. Don't you agree?  
  
Oh, and a friend and I were going to start a new fic. Anyone got any ideas? 


	19. Chapter seventeen

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
Robin stared after him. She wasn't sure how she felt. She was surprised, and hurt. Why had Karl kissed her? She didn't want him as a lover; she needed him to help her rule the city, as a friend. Then impulse took over. Robin raced blindly down the hallway, trying to find Karl. Blurred figures whipped past her, but Robin knew that none of them was Karl. Tears blinded her vision. She wanted to kill Karl! When she caught up to him, she would whip him, scratch him, and punch him! Anything, anything to let her anger go!  
  
For all her twelve years of age, Robin had spent more then half of it running, and, as a result, was a very fast runner. Up until she was ten, she had been running from gangs, and guards, the past two years, she had spent running because she was told to by the training masters.  
  
She burst out onto the streets, and people stared at her. Robin bit down on her lip, feeling a little embarrassed, then continued running. She didn't care where she was headed, she didn't care about beating up Karl any more; she just wanted to get away. All the anger and humiliation that had been building up inside her in the months she had been a page was spilling out of her. She cried as she ran, tears of anger, tears of joy, of being free, and tears of just plain sadness.  
  
Robin stopped to catch her breath. Nearby, somebody whispered, "Alkapak nucie!" Instantly, Robin felt an excruciating pain. Instinct told her to start running again, and she did, though not nearly as fast as she had before. Now, she stumbled and slid like she was drunk.  
  
Finally she stopped, grasping the stitch in her side that had grown to an almost unbearable crescendo as she had run. Robin fell, panting, to her knees. Every inch of her small body ached and burned. She realized that she would never see her castle friends again, nor would she see Karl, or her used-to-be-subjects. She was no longer Robin of Chassie, Page at the Castle, or even Robin, King of Thieves. She was Robin, Outcast Robin, Outlaw Robin, Runaway Robin, Robin, just plain Robin. At last, she looked up.  
  
"Well, lassie, I'm glad you finally decided to get up!" Said a cheery voice. "I was beginning to think I was going to have to wake you up myself, which, mind you, wouldn't have been pleasant at all."  
  
"Don't joke with her, Merryl, she's had a rough time. Imagine, being King of Thieves, then being forced to become a page at the very place you dreaded most!" This voice came from Robin's other side, and was just as cheery. "And besides, you know perfectly well that your waking her up would have been quite painless."  
  
"I know, Addie, I was just getting a little-"  
  
"You were just getting a little like your old, human, self. Joking and what not."  
  
"Where are you?" Robin demanded. "What happened? Why am I here? How do you know who I am?"  
  
"We're right here," said the first voice, and there appeared a small, muscular woman with fair skin and golden hair with a vicious look about her, but with a kindly face. On Robin's other side, there was a tall, also strong lady with dark skin and dark hair, she also had a vicious air, but she looked more kindly then the other woman. "I'm Merryl," said the fair- skinned lady, "And this is my sister Addie." Merryl said, pointing at the other woman. "We're fairies."  
  
"You were running along, then, deary, don't be surprised, but. . . . someone killed you."  
  
"What!" Robin gasped. "Impossible. I'm living and breathing like any human aught to be. I can't be dead."  
  
"Can't you?" Asked Addie. "I assure you, you died."  
  
"Then why am I here? Shouldn't I be laying on the ground somewhere, not talking to fairies?"  
  
"We saved you, Robin. When you died, Merryl was so sad that she persuaded me to help her bring you back to life."  
  
"Why would Merryl care if I died or not?" Robin demanded.  
  
"Merryl is your mother, Robin." Addie whispered. "She didn't always go by Merryl, she used to be Alanna of Pirate's Swoop and Oalu, King's Champion. She didn't always look like this, either. She used to be the spitting image of you. Small, quick to anger, and determined."  
  
"You're my daughter, Elaine, for Elaine is you name."  
  
"I don't want to be your daughter!" Robin - Elaine - shouted. "I want to go back to living a normal life!"  
  
"I'm afraid that isn't possible, you see, you were turned into a fairy." Robin's jaw dropped, and, for a moment, she was rendered speechless.  
  
Addie took advantage of Robin's - Elaine's - speechlessness to talk. "Not very many people knew that your mother had a sister. That was because I died at a young age, too young for anybody to know about me, and Father certaintly wouldn't have had any records. Tom killed me. He was trying out one of those crazy spells he had heard about, but it went haywire and killed me. I've never forgiven him, I loved life, but the fairies saved me, so now I'm alive."  
  
"I'm a fairy." Elaine whispered quietly to herself. "Can't I ever turn back into a human?" Both the fairies standing in front of her shook their heads.  
"Elaine, don't worry! There are so many adventures to have being a fairy!" Elaine's mother sat down next to her. "There's things worse then dragons, more treacherous then the most dangerous things where you used to live!"  
  
And so, Elaine, and her mother, Merryl, with Addie, had some of the most amazing adventures ever. More dangerous, more treacherous, more exciting adventures they would have ever wished for when they were human.  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
Would you look at that! I finished a story! I know it's not anything at all what you might have expected, but oh well. It came as a sudden burst of imagination!!!!!!!!!!! I am so totally hyped that I finished a story, and that it is so MY story, and that nobody, as far as I know, ever thought of it!!!!!!!!!! 


End file.
